A RETIRED cobbler has won his battle to preserve the home where he has lived and worked for more than 40 years.

Burnley Council has dropped plans to compulsory purchase 185-187 Accrington Road - home to former shoesmith Raymond Holdgate - as part of clearance work under the Elevate programme.

Neighbours and former customers of the 76-year-old were furious at the council's plans to bulldoze the properties, which adjoin the former Wood Top Infants School.

The pensioner moved into the property in 1965, having worked as a cobbler on the opposite side of the road since 1946.

In recent years he has seen dozens of properties and shops in Wood Top boarded up or demolished.

He said: "I'm a lot happ-ier now. "

Council bosses decided last September that the two houses needed to be bulld-ozed to create a better frontage for a new housing development to the north of Accrington Road.

The properties were set to be purchased using a Housing Market Renewal Grant from Elevate East Lancashire. But a report to the council's executive says officers are exploring the possibility of refurb-ishing the property, using funding from the council's capital programme, in a scheme which should also incorporate the former infant school.

Council regeneration spokesman Shopna Begum said: "Following the executive's decision there has been regular contact with the owner-occupier of these properties.

"It is clear that he does not wish to sell the properties by agreement.

"However, he has indicated he may be able to secure some private investment to help to refurbish the properties concerned."

Permission exists for the school to be converted into apartments, with new homes at the rear.

Mr Holdgate said: "Wood Top has been dying for the last 40 or 50 years and now the council is looking to kill it completely.

"Every window in this house has been smashed at some point.

"When the houses started coming down the vandals moved in."

Metal grilles cover most of the windows and he has barbed wire and spikes covering the back walls.