A YOUNG mother is considering legal action after she was left without heating over the New Year in a Whitefield blight home.

Miss Lorraine Richards (21) and her four young children were left in the cold from Boxing Day until Sunday, January 4 - and is now considering suing the Highways Agency.

"It was terrible, we were all freezing with just two electric heaters, one of which a neighbour loaned to us, and I was particularly worried about my son who suffers from asthma," she said.

Incredibly, the family were left in the same situation when their gas boiler broke down for a short period last year as well.

When she found that the heating was off, Miss Richards, of Windsor Avenue, telephoned the management agent for the homes only to find an answering machine message referring her to her tenants handbook - which she has never received.

Other tenants tried to help and after four days a workman turned up.

"He got the pilot light back on but said that I needed a new timer. He went away and never returned," said Miss Richards.

On January 4 another workman arrived after being contacted by another tenant.

"It took him no time at all to fix the boiler and we had heat again," she explained.

Then, on Monday of this week, eleven days after her first message, someone from the management agents telephoned to say he was returning her call. "I told him what he could do. I am so angry that they can leave young children to freeze in this sort of weather that I also said I shall be talking to my solicitor to see if I can sue them."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency, who own the homes they bought during the failed scheme to build the M62 relief road, said that they will launch an immediate investigation with their management agents.

None of them were available for comment.

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