MORE than 100 local landlords attended a special meeting to denounce the council's new registration scheme last week.

During an often stormy meeting at Morecambe Town Hall the landlords were incensed at news that they had signed up to the most stringent and expensive scheme in the country.

The council introduced the housing in multiple occupancy registration scheme in a bid to clamp down on slum landlords.

But they claim they have been misled by the council and that bad landlords are still getting away with letting sub-standard properties.

Geraldine Smith, whose postbag has been packed with letters on this issue, attended the meeting and explained the landlords' concerns. "They claim they were told it was a Government policy but that is untrue," she said. "Only twelve authorities across the country have introduced such a scheme and Lancaster's is the most expensive. They also claim that good landlords are being targeted while others, which are sometimes just a few doors away, seem to have been left alone. The scheme doesn't appear to have sorted out the problems it was designed to resolve. Instead, it's just made a lot of good landlords very unhappy."

Leader of the biggest group on the council, Cllr Tricia Heath, chaired the meeting and said: "This issue has created massive amounts of correspondence and complaints and I feel a review is crucial."

These sentiments were backed by housing policy chairman, Cllr Carol Broad, who said: "We are currently undertaking a review of the registration scheme based on issues brought to us by members of the public. There is great dissatisfaction at the way it has been implemented."

The recommendations will now be discussed at the next housing policy committee meeting.

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