RESIDENTS in Bewsey claim that their attempts to clean up their close have been ignored by council officials and local councillors.

Three cars have been abandoned on Bewsey Park Close since before October last year and despite complaints to the housing department and councillors to remove the vehicles nothing has been done. In a final bid to resolve the problem residents have contacted Warrington North MP Helen Jones.

Residents say that one car has no road tax, the other no number plate and that another vehicle, the only one occasionally used, is also without road tax.

One resident, Tom Senior, aged 55, moved on to the close in October last year. Previous residents told him about the abandoned cars parked outside houses on the close.

Mr Senior said: "I am partially disabled and the cars are causing problems for me. My niece comes to pick me up on a weekend and she has to park on the footpath quite a distance away.

Director of Housing Tom Roberts said: "The problem is that the vehicles belong to a tenant which makes it difficult because they are parked on council land and not on a public highway so it is not a criminal offence.

"However the tenant has now apparently absconded from the property, so we can initiate measures to remove the vehicles. If this is true and he is no longer a council tenant he no longer has a right to park the cars on council land."

Bewsey and Whitecross councillor Jeff Richards said: "I have chased the problem up with the highways section who in turn referred it to the local housing office. As far as I am aware it is in the hands of their legal section."