THE widow of singer Frankie Vaughan has picked up her husband's legacy of campaigning to improve life in a Glasgow housing estate.

Stella Vaughan, 79, has demanded politicians turn their attentions back to Easterhouse, which she said had been neglected for decades.

The mother-of-three, who was married for 48 years, said her husband's passion in the 1960s for encouraging young men to put down their weapons in the city scheme inspired the whole family.

Now they are renewing their promise to the area.

Mrs Vaughan said: "If Frankie was alive, he would be right up there in Easterhouse, and I would be doing the lights and sound for him again."

Vaughan used gigs in the 1960s to help raise funds for a youth facility known as The Easterhouse Project, huts built by the army and used as neutral territory for youngsters.

The huts were burned to the ground more than two years ago after lying derelict for three years.

Now activists have promised to build a new "Phoenix Project" on the same site. Fans of Frankie donated hundreds of pounds last month, on the anniversary of the star's birth, to help kick off the drive.

Mrs Vaughan, who lives in Buckinghamshire, said: "The original Easterhouse Project gave young men a place to go. Frankie always said, If you look after the young men of today, they are the grown up men of tomorrow'.

"It cut crime tremendously. It was upsetting for Frankie to see Easterhouse slide backwards towards the end of his life. Politicians have let down areas like Easterhouse and now is the time to find solutions."

Frankie died in 1999.

North-east councillor Gerard Leonard said: "Perhaps in the past we did not put the effort in we should have, but in recent years a tremendous amount of money and effort has gone into the area.

"You just need to look at The Bridge, a £12million arts and leisure centre, and the new youth centre that is being built."