AGEING cobbles along a Pendle street - which are said to be proving a safety hazard for elderly residents - look set to stay.

Protesters say the setts, running along Spring Place, behind Albert Road, Colne, should by ripped up and replaced by a smoother surface.

Spring Place is home to Norway House, a sheltered housing complex, where neighbours have collected a 35-name petition asking for Pendle Council to make the necessary alterations.

Caretaker Ali ul-Haq said that a strategy was needed to safeguard the safety of residents at the Harvest Housing flats for retired people.

In a letter to the council he adds: "We have a lot of elderly tenants and people in wheelchairs who are struggling with the current surface, which could be sorted if you could get it Tarmacked."

But as the cost of replacing the cobbles with a paved alternative - or repairing the original flags and setts on Spring Place - could amount to £75,000 - hopes are not high the pensioners' protest will be heeded.

An estimate of £75,000 has been given for taking up and relaying all the current flags and cobbles, to make for a smoother surface for OAPs.

Another option could be to create wider stone-flagged pathway on the south side of Spring Place, with a bill of £20,000, or a cheaper bitumen surface, costing only £6,000.

Repairs to the setts and flags alone would leave a £12,500 bill and engineering chiefs would have to pay £5,500 for the cobbles to be covered in bitumen.

Peter Atkinson, the council's engineering manager, writes in a council report: "Staff from Lancashire County Council have inspected the street and while they recognise that the condition is poor, they have no plans or finance to re-lay or resurface it."

Because it is deemed a back street, Spring Place does not fall within the council's own strategy which considers the replacement of old cobbles.

The road is also part of the Albert Road conservation area and heritage officials say they would rather see the setts relaid than replaced.

Councillors sitting on Pendle council's Colne committee will decided what action to take, if any, at a town hall meeting on Thursday.

Members of the committee have been told that it is usually council policy to safeguard cobbled areas in Pendle wherever it is possible.