COUNCIL tenants in Brunshaw, Burnley, are all set to take over responsibility for the day-to-day running of their estate.

The formal agreement, to be signed in the splendour of Towneley Hall on Tuesday, will be the first in the north and one of the first in the country.

The council and the Brunshaw Neighbourhood Estates Management Board will enter into a formal agreement, transferring the responsibility of the day-to-day running of the housing management service to elected tenant representatives.

Burnley Council is recognised as one of the leading local authorities in the country in promoting tenant participation in the management of its housing service. The Brunshaw EMB follows on the success of the West End EMB, which has been in operation since 1991.

Other tenants groups in the Borough, such as the Padiham and Hapton Area Management Committee, have also taken on different levels of control of services as part of the council's tenant involvement strategy.

Margaret Duthie, head of housing management, said it was hoped that the tenant participation initiatives would cover the whole of the council's housing stock in the next 12 months.

Brunshaw EMB chairman John Ormerod, said: "The signing of this agreement and the strength of all the various tenant groups already in existence in the borough is living proof that tenant participation really works.

"We have achieved things here that other towns and cities just dream about.''

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