Bury derelict flats: Residents call for council purchase

“Forgotten” residents in a street blighted by anti-social behaviour centred on an abandoned block of flats have joined their MP in urging Bury Council to take over the building.

In 2023 the fire service condemned the block at 80-100 Baguley Crescent, between Prestwich and Middleton, where there have been several blazes.

Neighbours complain of “living in this squalor for years”, while Bury South’s Labour MP Christian Wakeford said: “There’s probably people squatting in there now and it’s potentially a death-trap for them.”

A spokesperson for Bury Council said: “There are currently no plans to pursue a compulsory purchase order [on the building] due to the complex ownership arrangements.”

The owners of the apartments in the block have responsibility for their own properties, as well as the repair, insurance and maintenance of communal areas.

Meanwhile the freeholder, Enlightened Investments Limited, told the BBC it would like to take full control of the flats.

In a statement, the firm said: “We do not have day-to-day control of the building in the way a managing landlord typically would, but we do have certain legal rights and we have now actively begun to exercise those.”