I was living on bags of crisps, it's disgusting

Pensioners tell Damon Wilkinson and Thomas George of their hellish life in condemned flats

IN THE gloom of his one-bed flat, Tony Henry describes the moment the electricity was cut off.

"We were watching telly and bam! Just like that it went off," the 68-year-old said. "They gave nobody no notice." Mr Henry is one of a number of mainly elderly people eking out an existence in a condemned block of flats on an otherwise neat and tidy cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Middleton.

Outside, piles of rubbish litter the overgrown grass in what, at first glance, appears to be an abandoned building site.

Inside it's even worse. The dank and dingy staircase is covered in scaffolding.

Cracks can be seen in the walls and large gaps wide enough to fit your hand through run alongside the main window. The flats on Baguley Crescent were condemned by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in May 2023 following a blaze in which three people were rescued from the second floor.

It's understood the service had concerns about the safety of fire escapes and the danger of fire spreading through the building.

A second prohibition notice was also issued in May this year.

Despite that, a number of residents have continued to live in the dangerous and crumbling threestorey building.

They shouldn't be there, but they say they have nowhere else to go. Bury council insists that all residents were offered alternative accommodation following the fire last year.

Then on October 1, the building's electricity supply was cut off due to what Electricity North West described as 'safety reasons! The power company said there was evidence of an illegal and highly dangerous connection bypassing the meter. It's meant that since then the remaining residents have been living by candlelight, unable to cook or heat their homes.