SIR: After having a house on the market for the better part of last year, sheer desperation forces me to put pen to paper.

'House Prices Up', 'gazumping', 'demand'. Don't make me laugh! Anyone with a house to sell will tell a different story - 'Prices down, no demand!'

Whatever happened to the 'first time buyer'? Do they not think investing their hard-earned cash in a house in Bolton worthwhile? Is this town such a bad investment? No! Could the answer possibly be that they are being tempted by the big money builders to deposit their £99 and move into one of the super deal five per cent deposit paid, cash back, free legal fees, carpets, kitchens, and everything paid for new homes of the multi-national companies?

This wipes out the kickstart layer of first-time buyers in Bolton's housing market. With at least 20 sites of these Super Deals around the town, what chance do the rest of us have?

These companies clean up, and move on to wreak their havoc elsewhere, having gobbled up a majority of the percentage of first time buyers. So, what about the rest of us - estate agents, vendors, furnishing shops etc etc etc? So it goes on down the shute, a downward spiral.

Come on, Bolton Planning, we have enough houses. Let's get moving and have a healthy housing market again. Less building sites, more parks and leisure sites. Less of these multi-nationals. We don't need any.

Mrs B Coop,

Blenheim Road, Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.