SOCIAL Services bosses today insisted they did not need to talk to neighbours of little James Moxham, who died in a house fire two months ago.

Their comments come after concerned residents living in Holly Close, Sarisbury Green, said they were ignored despite raising fears about the four-year-old's welfare.

James died in the blaze that broke out in the ground-floor bedroom of the family's council property in Holly Close, Sarisbury Green, on September 2.

His mother, Lisa Nolan, 23, father Andrew Moxham, 36, and brother Jake, 3, all survived the fire.

Social Services assistant director Steve Love said the purpose of their investigation was to look at the involvement of social services before the fire.

"We carried out an internal management review, looking at the work we had done with the family before the fire.

"As we were not looking into the fire itself it was not appropriate to speak to neighbours at this stage."

The findings of the review carried out by the social services internal performance monitoring team will be passed on to the executive member for Social Services, Councillor Felicity Hindson, after the inquest.

A neighbour, who did not wish to be named said: "All we want is to see justice for James.

"We are all still in shock about what happened and I miss James terribly. Especially when I remember him last year doing Trick or Treat at Hallowe'en.

"No one has come to speak to us from Social Services. We are just waiting."

A police file on the fire has been passed on to the coroner for Portsmouth and South East Hampshire.

A date for the inquest is expected to be set within the next few weeks.