Ipswich Borough Council has been successful in uniting the three Area Housing Panels, tenants, Labour councillors and local MP, Chris Mole, against their plans to close Area Housing Offices in Ipswich.

The response to the council's questionnaire sent to tenants showed that 80% were AGAINST the council's proposals to shut the Area Housing Offices. The proposals would result in some 20 redundancies.

'The council is riding roughshod over the views of its tenants while dressing-up their proposals as an improvement to services to them. It's quite shameful' says Councillor John Mowles, Labour Housing Spokesman.

A tenant representative on one of the Area Panels added: "the voice of tenants is more powerful than ever, yet our administration haven't seemed to take this on board."

A meeting attended by representatives of all three Area Housing Panels, but shamefully not by the Tory Executive member for Housing, unnanimously called for the Council to delay its plans and listen to tenants.