RESIDENTS in the west of Accrington have glimpsed the plans for the first new housing to be built under Hyndburn's housing regeneration programme.

The proposals for 29 homes on land between Londsdale Street and Newark Street have been drawn up by Manchester-based social landlord Space New Living.

It includes three and four-bedroom family homes, bungalows for elderly people and two bungalows specially designed for people with disabilities.

The properties will all back onto a central courtyard, which will serve as a car park.

People attending a meeting of the West Accrington Residents' Association this week were given a preview of the proposals, which have not yet been submitted to Hyndburn Council's planning department.

Nigel Rix, managing director of Hyndburn First, the council's regeneration arm, said: "No one has looked at these plans before you have this evening."

There are residents still living in the area that will have to be cleared to make way for Space's development, if it is granted planning permission.

The council was unable to buy up all the properties necessary for it to go ahead after the North West Development Agency pulled £800,000 funding from the borough's regeneration programme, Project Phoenix.

But Mr Rix reassured these residents that they were now among 15 priority households that will benefit from the £820,000 coming from English Partnerships to plug the gap.

Concerns were raised about mixing family homes with bungalows for the elderly.

One local resident said: "Putting the young people and the old people together will not work - they just don't mix. The old people get annoyed with the young people playing in the street."

Nick Wood, from Triangle Architects, which has designed the building for Space, said: "We are trying to build communities. I don't think putting all the families in one place and the all the pensioners in another place would work."

Speaking after the meeting Angela Hardman, from Space, said the planning application would be submitted by the end of the month.