I AM beginning to think that Bolton Council is waging a campaign to deliberately reduce the value of properties, in particular, in Halliwell.

In 2007, properties in Arnold Street, for example, sold for more than £70,000.

But in the past few years, with the introduction of buy-to-let schemes, properties are now selling for less than £60,000, according to Rightmove.

Many people work hard to pay their mortgages and see their properties as investments, yet prices are plummeting, allowing landlords to purchase cheaper properties and then rent them out to unemployed people who have been evicted from council housing, and more recent immigrants.

Many of us residents of Halliwell, who have lived here all our lives, are starting to feel under siege and unless the council starts to rethink its current policies then I dread to think what is going to happen.

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