A WARRINGTON councillor is on a mission to regenerate a run down area.

Mike Hannon , councillor for Orford, said areas of Longford were were in desperate need of help.

He told Warrington Guardian: "Drugs are rife and there is a lot of bullying and intimidation going on."

He is now calling on the borough council to work with other agencies to solve the problem of run down and boarded up properties in Longford.

He wants the council's education, social services and housing departments to team up with the police to look at ways of improving the state of areas like Densham Avenue and neighbouring streets.

He said: "I am pushing for the long term regeneration of the area with a multi-agency approach that sees education, housing, policing and social services all coming together.

"All the council departments and all external agencies need to sit down together at the same table and start working on long term solutions for the area.

"There's no quick fix, it's gone too far for that. We need a long-term programme, but the only way we can do it is if we work together.

"There's a social welfare issue here and something should be done about it.I've been making this appeal for 10 years and enough is enough.

"We need to be doing something. I'm not pointing the finger of blame at anyone but we need to give people around here some hope.

"The area is probably worse now than it was 10 years ago and it's starting to spread to other streets.

"People are living in fear and I'm just highlighting the situation.The majority of residents around here are upstanding citizens and we need to give them some hope."

He added: "I do feel sorry for housing because they have spent £9 million in the area but it's no good unless they're backed up by education, social services and the police. They can't do it alone."