HOME Secretary Jack Straw has stepped in to try to help a disabled woman who has lost the chance of a new home after her fiance died.

It was the wish of Lez Saunders that Debbie Yates, 26, should vacate her flat in Cambridge Gardens, Lower Audley, Blackburn, where she has been the victim of juvenile nuisance, and move into his housing association bungalow in Cook Gardens.

But to her dismay she discovered within days of his funeral that the locks to the property had been changed.

She had been in the process of moving in and half of her belongings were still inside.

Debbie has enlisted the help of Jack Straw to try to reverse the decision of Salford Housing not to let her have the bungalow.

Hero Lez suffered severe spinal injuries after diving under a car as it hurtled towards a group of youngsters six years ago.

He was due to marry wheelchair-bound Debbie next month in a ceremony at Ewood Park, Blackburn.

The distraught Debbie said: "Lez and I had planned to live in Cook Gardens as man and wife, but he became seriously ill and in his latter months lived with me.

"I considered myself his common-law wife and it was his dying wish that I live there.

"The Salford Housing Association has said I can't move in because I am a single person, yet Lez lived there on his own."

Wheelchair-bound Debbie said she suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of prolonged fear and anxiety as a result of harassment from unruly youths near her flat. She has vowed to fight tooth and nail for the home in Cook Gardens, which she considers her own.

"The harassment I suffer is constant and I have been absolutely terrified. I am angry and upset by the treatment I have received.

"The housing association didn't even tell me that the locks to the bungalow were being changed and gave me two hours to get my belongings out."

Jack Straw's office confirmed that the Home Secretary and Blackburn MP had taken up the case and that he had written to Salford Housing Association asking for the matter to be reconsidered.

A spokesman for the Salford Housing Association said the bungalow had already been let.

"The property is a two-bedroomed bungalow purpose built for occupation by disabled people.

"Accomodation of this sort is scarce and our tenant selection must always take account of how such property can best be used to maximise the benefit to disabled people with special housing needs.

"We are satisfied that letting the property to a suitable couple, identified and nominated by the local authority, represents the best use of a scarce resources."

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