RESIDENTS at a retirement home will sleep easy in their beds now the gate to their property has been fixed.

The electronic main gate into Lever Gardens, a single-storey development consisting of flats and bungalows in Dearden Street, Little Lever, had been broken for about six months.

Bolton at Home engineers visited the property to resurface the asphalt around the gate and install underground wiring, which detects vehicles entering and leaving the premises.

And now the main gate opens and closes, meaning visitors have to either buzz themselves in or use a key fob to enter the building.

Last month, Lever Gardens residents and local activist Eric Hyde handed in a petition to Bolton at Home asking for greater security, following claims strangers and salesmen had got into the property.

Bolton at Home has now repaired the gate.

Resident, 56-year-old William Leckie, whose insurance premium on his sports car and motorbike went up when the gate was broken, said: “The insurance on my Mazda MX5 and BMW sports bike went up because Lever Gardens was no longer a locked compound.

“It’s great that this problem has been sorted and that we feel safer in our own homes.”

One of the residents who handed over the petition to Bolton at Home is Frank Pitts, aged 67.

He said: “I’m very happy about having the gate fixed. Residents couldn’t relax before, it was frightening.

“But now the gate’s working again, it will make this a much happier place.”

Fellow resident Elsie Shiel, aged 76, added: “I am pleased something has been done. We can now use the garden and chairs outside and not feel intimidated. I feel much safer now.”

A Bolton at Home spokesman said: “Following investi-gations we found that deteriorating asphalt caused the gate’s automatic system to stop working.

“We have re-surfaced the surrounding area and repaired the gate, which is now working correctly.

“We’ll monitor both the gate and ground condition regularly. We apologise again to residents for any inconvenience caused.”