A WOMAN who bought a dream retirement home in Bolton after waving goodbye to the Lake District is now desperate to leave the town after being terrorised by young louts.

Linda Collinson, aged 56, bought her home on Blenheim Road, Breightmet, four years ago -- but ever since has been targeted by youths who have made her life a misery.

The harassment has become so bad the woman and her wheelchair-bound 86-year-old mother Dorothy Lambert are now living in a back room of their home to escape the constant abuse.

The catalogue of attacks and abuse they have suffered at the hands of local youths, they say, has included;

Fireworks thrown through her letter box.

Eggs and stones pelted at her windows. Swearing at them when they complain about their behaviour.

Mrs Collinson also shares the semi-detached home with her 20-year-old son Jesse Jackson, a motor mechanic. She said he has twice had his car vandalised, once when it was set on fire and another time when someone kicked off the wing mirror.

But the final straw came this week when she was left badly bruised after a boy riding a bike ploughed into her on the pavement.

Mrs Collinson said she now regrets the day she decided to leave the quiet village of Arnside, near Grange-Over-Sands, for a new life in Bolton.

She said: "I really wish I'd never moved here. It has been absolutely terrible. We cannot stay here because we are frightened to live in our own home. We have had to move to the back of the house because we are so petrified to be in the front."

Mrs Collinson, a carer for a nursing agency, said she decided to move her family to Bolton because she wanted to buy a house she could retire in -- and it was much cheaper to buy property here. She had visited the town centre with her elderly mother and they both commented on how it had been improved.

She said: "We thought it looked like a really nice place."

But now, Mrs Collinson is ready to pack her bags again. She said: "If that boy on the bike had hit my mother she would probably be dead. We can't go on living like this."

Cllr Madeline Murray, one of three people who represent the district, said she was disappointed the women had not been to see her to tell her about their problems.

"Breightmet has a lot going for it, it is a nice place to live," she said. "These residents could have spoken to me or told one of the housing panels about their problems.

"Also, they could have visited the Leverhulme housing office and wardens could have followed up her complaints."

Sgt Jim Winwood, of Astley Bridge police station, said he sympathised with the problems the family is experiencing.

But he added: "Breightmet is no different from any other large residential area in the country.

"There are other areas of Bolton which have far worse problems with juvenile nuisance.

"In fact, Breightmet has improved in recent years in many areas. For example, there has been a drop in burglaries."

Sgt Winwood said the police would respond to any further breaches of the law Mrs Collinson experienced.