WIGAN Council is inviting people to help spend millions.

Public feedback is sought about the planned £58 million ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) scheme aimed at vastly improving the condition of existing council properties.

The Government backed scheme will make available extra funding to the best of the eight councils pursuing ALMO. Wigan has been provisionally allocated £58 million for 2003 and 2004 then it is proposed the government will support the scheme for a further two years, with the borough hoping to receive an additional £70-80 million.

Arms Length Management basically means the council will still own the properties, tenants will still be council tenants, and the day to day housing service will be managed by an ALMO, who will take over in April.

For ease, the borough will be divided in two areas, Leigh and Wigan, which will be run by separate boards overlooked by an umbrella body.

Each board will be made up of 30 volunteer members including councillors, council tenants and independent experts, who will be responsible for many of the housing management duties currently carried out by the council's housing department. These include ordering and carrying out of day to day repairs, tenancy management, rehousing and dealing with neighbour nuisance.

The council plans to spend the money primarily on the visual aspect of the properties -- roofing, fencing, security, parking and facilities, but it also plans to systematically replace all original bathrooms and kitchens.

Peter Gee, director of housing said: "This is the most important thing to happen to the borough's housing. Over the next four years it is hoped this funding will have an impact on the appearance of houses and estates, improve the facilities available, create jobs and boost the local building industry."

Early consultations with the tenant and residents groups in the borough and the Wigan Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations (FOTARA) produced positive support for the scheme.

A spokesman for FOTARA said: "This is a great opportunity to bring the Housing Stock up to a decent standard. It is also an opportunity for tenants to have a say in the running of the Housing Services."

The next stage of the development is now underway, with all the borough's council tenants receiving an information pack and a feedback slip to be completed and returned to the council by January 18.

The council are keen to hear the views of those who will be directly affected by the developments.

Mr Gee said: "We want to stress that tenants rights will not be affected by the changes, but we do want to know what they think of the plans. If the feedback is positive we can start to move forward and determine exactly how to spend the resources. Any negative feedback will be taken seriously and looked at individually."

In a previous survey tenants of 30 per cent of the 26,000 properties replied, and housing chiefs hope there will be a similar response this time.

There is also space on the reply slip to put forward possible names for the three boards, which are at present referred to as the West Board, the East Board and the umbrella body.