WE find the article in the Journal on February 3 about Wigan Council being a listening council a joke and an insult.

On November 21 the fence between our council house and our next door neighbour blew down.

My wife and I are both pensioners living on a single pension between us as she is one of the women who has not been eligible for hers due to being born after 1952.

We still have to pay full rent and council tax.

The next day I e-mailed Lord Peter Smith at the council reporting what had happened, asking for help with getting a replacement as it would be a great hardship for us to pay for a fence out of my weekly pension.

He e-mailed me back within the hour saying he had passed it on to the housing department.

We got a visit from Steve Burns from Wigan and Leigh Homes on December 1.

All he would say is that the council does not replace back garden fences as Leigh residents had decided at a forum that they would rather have new bathrooms.

We read an article in the Journal about the council supporting the movement backing women who have had their state pensions delayed by years, so on December 17 we e-mailed Cllr Joanne Platt, who was pictured with the WASPI group, and explained our situation to her.

We said to her it is not just the Tory government that is picking on pensioners, Wigan Council does not seem to care either.

She expressed sympathy with our predicament and said she would make her own enquires.

But nothing has been done.

On January 8 we e-mailed asking if there had been any news.

She e-mailed back saying she had made enquiries with the relevant department manager and would get back to us when she had heard something back.

On January 25 we e-mailed Cllr Platt again but writing this weeks later we had not had a response.

So since November 21 there has not been a fence closing off our backyard from our neighbours, so the locking bolt we have on our back gate keeping it secure is useless.

Mr and Mrs Shaw

Wigan Road

Leigh