FAMILIES on the Briarswood estate, Great Sankey, braved the rain last week to join forces over problems in the area.

Khady Bravo-Antelo, of Alconbury Close, arranged a community barbecue to encourage neighbours to get to know each other but also discuss issues including rats, bin and fencing problems.

Khady, who has lived on the McInerney Homes housing estate for two years, said: “We wanted to bring the community toegther because we have a lot of problems and the council is not taking any notice.

“We were thinking about tidying up the children’s play area in the spring ourselves but because bins were not emptied and there are rats we can’t do anything with the children there.

“It’s a lovely area and everybody waves at each other in the morning but we just need the council to take notice.”

The barbecue helped raise £61 for the Royal Liverpool Hospital cancer ward.

Sharon Walls, public realm manage at the council, said the estate has still not been adopted by the council as developer McInerney Homes went into liquidation, which means responsibility for fixing fencing, roads and empying litters bins does not lie with the council.

She added: “We would like to reassure residents that the council is doing all it can to ensure this situation is resolved as soon as possible.”