Life in the deserted Greater Manchester tower blocks where they will pay you thousands to leave

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Seven tower blocks stand proud and tall over Rochdale. Minutes away from the town centre, the 'Seven Sisters' were a feat of engineering when completed in the 1960s.

However, campaigners and residents say the estate, officially known as College Bank, has been in a state of 'managed decline' since Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) took control of the council's housing stock in 2012, despite RBH saying they are investing £20m on improvement works across the estate.

Six years ago plans were announced to demolish four of the blocks at Seven Sisters, and this year residents were offered more than £7,000 from RBH to move.

Many have jumped at this opportunity, but some, having built their lives here, do not want to leave the four blocks facing the wrecking ball.

With no new lettings in any of the blocks while RBH look to rehouse people from the condemned ones, the exodus of neighbours has sucked the feeling of community from the once bustling estate, with dirty buildings and boarded up garages blotting the landscape.

Just 11 of the 120 flats in the Mitchell Hey block, the furthest away from the town centre, are currently occupied. The M.E.N's Lyell Tweed reports.

READ MORE: "I haven't left my house for months": The harsh reality of life on the estate dubbed 'one of the worst in Greater Manchester'

I sat near the Mitchell Hey block for nearly an hour looking to speak to one of the residents, in which time roughly half a dozen people passed.

Some were simply cutting through from further afield to get to the town centre, while others were from different blocks which have slightly more life to them.

"There’s no way I’m leaving, I’ve been here 27 years, I’m not going anywhere," one resident from neighbouring Dunkirk Rise