BOLTON RENTS The day the

Six council house families were originally under threat for refusing to pay Bolton's £1.04p rent increase under the Tory Housing Finance Act.

Last week bailiffs impounded furniture to compensate the authority for the £22.88p rent arrears, but after an emergency meeting ot the housing committee on Monday they have been called off.

Neil Duffield, a carpenter and one of the six, told me that the deputy borough treasurer had rung him yesterday morning to tell him of the climb-down.

'It was great news,' he said. •We consider it a victory. I think that the solidarity demonstration made the treasurer think twice.

'We have been going round other tenants, and some are going back on rent strike they have been so encouraged by our fight.

Nell Duffield faced seizures worth £50. crease. Now the six are fighting it out alone.

I came home that night and I was real mad. You feel so this kind of dictatorship, about said Roy Kelly, a maintenance fitter. 'Then I thought we had better pay.

'But after the demonstration I am determined to stick it out.' He was talking after the solidarity demonstration in Bolton which attracted tenants from Oldham, Manchester, Hattersley and Kirkby, Liverpool.

Despite yesterday's decision Bolton may set a precedent for action against other tenants. So far the authorities have acted mainly against councils who defy the Housing Finance Act, and all in England bar Clay Cross have caved in. Tenants have been subject to normal eviction warnings for arrears. But such action carries with it the complication that tenants can go to a county court and protest.

Bolton's borough treasurer appears to have found an ingenious way of avoiding courts and penalizing the tenants directly. The irony is that it is the town's Labour council that is mainly responsible for his power.

He claims to be taking action under a clause in the 1958 Local Government Act, but a solicitor has told the tenants that under this act the treasurer is exceeding his powers. But the treasurer says that a council decision last November effectively delegated to him many powers normally residing with the elected representatives. Roy and Elleen Kelly with furniture the bailiffs wanted levied within five days ... they will be sold according to auction.' The second document was a •walking possession' order, which is simply notice to the tenant that the bailiff can walk in at GET YOUR BOOKS. PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS FROM THE paperbacks centre PAPEKBACKS GENTRE NOW OPEN Monday 1o hursday 9 a.m p.m.

Fridays (late night opening) 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m any time and seize his furniture.

The threat at Bolton has receded for the present, but rent strikers elsewhere in the country should be on their guard. It could be used again.