RESIDENTS at a retirement home have handed in a petition calling for greater security because their main gate has been broken for six months.

The petition was handed to Bolton at Home by residents of Lever Gardens, a single-storey development consisting of flats and bungalows in Dearden Street, Little Lever, along with local activist Eric Hyde.

Now Bolton at Home says contractors will repair the gate "as a matter of urgency".

Lever Gardens has an electronic main gate which, according to residents, has not worked for about six months, and has been left open.

They claim that strangers have entered the property and that Lever Gardens has been targeted by salesmen and used as a parking spot by drivers who are not visiting relatives.

Frank Pitts and Elsie Shiel handed in the petition, which has 24 signatures, to Jon Lord, the chief executive of Bolton at Home.

Mr Pitts, aged 67, said: “We have had enough of it.

“The gate breaks and then gets repaired, over and over again.

“The area is not secure — we have had people trying to sell stuff, strangers entering the building and then making a quick getaway when you ask them who they’re there to see.

“When we moved here, we were told that the home was secure. This has been going on for too long.”

Ms Shiel, aged 76, first raised concerns about the gate to Mr Hyde, prompting the start of the petition.

She said: “The gate needs to be shut, because we don’t feel safe in our own home.

“Two men have tried to sell me products and I’ve had to lock my door because of it.”

Mr Hyde, who is a Liberal Democrat activist for Darcy Lever and Little Lever, said: “Some people who live at Lever Gardens are vulnerable because of their ages.

“Fixing the gate will make everyone feel much safer in their own homes.”

A spokesman for Bolton at Home said: “We have met with our tenants at Lever Gardens and apologised to them as clearly this issue should have been resolved much sooner.

“We have instructed our maintenance contractor to repair the security gate as a matter of urgency and to carry out weekly checks to ensure that it is working as it should be.”