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Bowlee Park staff to move out of town
Tina Curran26/ 1/2006
BOWLEE Park Housing staff are bound for Heywood leaving a 'one-stop shop' on the Langley estate.
In a move it claims will make services more efficient, the housing association has confirmed that it plans to move some of its staff two miles from the estate to Heywood.
At the minute residents can visit offices on Lingmell Close and Bowness Road for their services, but come summer this will be reduced to one office for the thousands of people living in Langley.
Bowlee hopes to cut costs with the move and put more resources into improving the estate.
The housing association took over from Manchester City Council four years ago to improve the lives of residents and since then has made a number of refurbishments throughout the area.
And the move to Heywood is expected to improve services for people in the area, ensuring they can have their problems sorted through one visit instead of having to travel from one office to another.
Local resident, Irene Edge, said: "As long as we have the one office it should be ok. And the one that is remaining is not far away and will be easy for people to get to. It would even be better in fact because it would save people having to walk back and forth to the different offices.
"When you phone up you've got to be put through to Liverpool first and you don't always get sorted out on the phone. It would be worse if both offices moved. People can walk to the offices here and if all the services are in the same office it would be better for accountability too. It is definitely a better idea."
Councillor for Langley, Terry Smith, said: "From what I have gathered the offices at the minute are not suitable and they are looking for somewhere more. They have looked all over Middleton but have not found anything that is acceptable and so they have begun to look in Heywood.
"I understand the reasons why they have done this because the staff must be comfortable but it is very surprising that they haven't found anything suitable in Middleton. I am very disappointed.
"But they have said that it is only the people who work in the back that will be moved and not people who deal with the public."
Bowlee Park Housing said that it was conducting a full review of its housing services to ensure the best possible quality of customer service to tenants.
A spokesperson said: "Some of our rent and housing management administrative services will be transferred to new premises two miles away in Green Lane, Heywood. Naturally, our tenants will be able to contact us at Lingmell Close and we can also arrange home visits where required as well as offering telephone access to a 24-hour, seven days a week customer service centre."
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27/01/2006 at 14:53