Council say they are 'taking mould and damp issues seriously' after concerns

Town hall bosses have defended their record on tackling complaints over mould and damp on a Leigh council housing estate - home to nearly 3,000 residents. They have responded after a 21-year-old resident said he believed concerns he had raised with Wigan council over mould in his flat on the Higher Folds estate were being ignored.

That complaint triggered a further response from a resident of the estate who claimed there was a ‘widespread problem’ of damp and mould in many of the properties on the estate. However, when the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited the properties he listed, the issues had been, or were being, dealt with.

As reported by the LDRS a week ago, jobless Ryan Clorley said he had made repeated complaints over mould on the walls of the bedroom and bathroom, as well as on the doors and curtains of the home on Sunningdale Grove. That prompted James Morley of Balmoral Drive, Higher Folds, to get in touch. Mr Morley has stood unsuccessfully four times as an Independent candidate for Wigan council.

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He said he has worked alongside former Conservative councillor Edward Houlton to highlight damp and mould problems at Higher Folds. Mr Houlton lost his seat on Wigan council in the 2022 local council elections. Mr Houlton said: “For at least a year, I went down there (to Higher Folds) every Friday and saw between five and 10 houses at a time where the mould was atrocious [this is about one-and-a-half years ago].

“There are houses and flats there with babies in them and there's black mould all over the walls. I don't know whether it's a design fault in those properties. Some of it is probably people not ventilating their homes. When I was a