OVERJOYED M62 blight home tenants were celebrating a change of landlord this week.

Shire Oaks, the property management company which had been at the centre of a catalogue of complaints from local people, ceased trading last week and now the homes are in the hands of the Manchester-based Arcon Housing Association - which the tenants have wanted all along.

Mr Michael Higson, M62 Tenants' Action Group chairman, said they were "over the moon" at the news.

"We have been after this all along," he said after a jubilant tenants meeting held on Tuesday, Febnruary 11, night.

"We have been asking Arcon to take over. We have been badgering the Highways Agency and the roads minister, and now it has finally happened."

The shock move came about with the collapse of Shire Oaks last week. The company have been the subject of a series of complaints from local residents about their upkeep of the properties.

Tenants said repairs had been substandard and claimed some properties were dangerous. Bury Council's environmental health department has served notice on the Department of Transport following investigations.

Last year tenants and the council called for their management to be suspended while safety checks were carried out on homes. Mr Higson has already spoken to Arcon representatives, and is optimistic about the future.

"If they do everything they promise, then we should be all right," he said.

The council were also celebrating this week at the news.

Coun Derek Boden, chairman of the M62 Relief Road steering group said it was a "common sense" move that should have been taken "many months ago". Coun Boden said: "Hopefully we will now see far better consultation with tenants and an improved maintenance and management system."

The council are now looking at putting in a team of housing officers permanently based in "Blightfield" to help residents.

An Arcon spokesman said: "We are aware of the problems in the houses, and we will take care of them."

The association will be speaking to tenants individually and carrying out repairs over the next few weeks, he added.

Arcon act as property agents for the Department of Transport across the whole of greater Manchester, and are responsible for several hundred properties.

They will speak to Johnson Fry, the company which employed Shire Oak to manage the properties, early next week to discuss the problems.

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