FOR far too long, the council estates in Blackburn and Darwen have not been kept up to scratch by the Labour-controlled council.

One only has to drive around the Roman Road estate to see the total mess it is in. It is like Dodge City and has been for a long time.

Legislation states that tenants have the final say as to who manages their estates and a better way than having a Labour council manage them would be for them to create their own local housing company.

Tenants would form one third of the management board and there would be more money available for repairs and the company would be non-profit making, which is fair enough.

But the Labour council is in favour of keeping control of its housing stock - not a good idea for tenants. In fact, it's keeping control contradicts the Labour government's policies, but, true to its form, Blackburn with Darwen Council thinks it knows best and does not listen to anyone. No wonder our estates and the town itself are becoming one big dump - you only have to read some of the letters in this newspaper.

The Labour council has raised rents by 14 per cent in the last two years. But, under a local housing company, the maximum increase allowed for existing tenants would be restricted to the rate of inflation for five years and then the rate of inflation plus one per cent - something which the tenants themselves would oversee. They would have control.

They owe it to themselves to have a decent estate to live on and at a fair price. The only way forward is for them to choose a local housing company.

H HAMER, Lowther Place, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.