A GROUP of residents who lost a court battle with the council over who was responsible for maintaining their front street are to launch an appeal against the decision.

Seven residents from Higher Croft Road, in Lower Darwen, faced Blackburn with Darwen Council in court after a dispute over who was responsible for the cost of repairing the road.

After two days in court, District Judge Paul Firth ruled the road was private and therefore the cost of resurfacing would be the responsibility of the residents not the council.

Although some residents in the street were happy to pay for the work, the original protesters were determined to continue their battle to get the council to cover the costs on the grounds the council had previously done resurfacing work in the 1950s.

They believed this proved the road was maintainable by the council.

They have since received support from more of their neighbours and today vowed to carry on fighting their case. Now they have lodged their intent to appeal against the court decision.

Gary Parker, of Higher Croft Road, said: "They gave us 21 days to appeal and now we have lodged the intent to appeal we have up to three days before the court date to withdraw if we want to.

"We are now hoping to get as much information as possible to help us in court.

"There is a legal argument over what we can and can't do this time. The rule of the court says we can only appeal against the original objection so we can't bring additional information in that was not mentioned before.

"The original objection was that the council did the work on the bottom end of the road in 1954 by mistake.

"So if we can find people who know what happened we can get evidence as to the extent of the work done.

"The appeal documentation says that we believe the judge underestimated how serious the work done was. It cost £500 in 1974 which we believe is about £30,000 today which doesn't seem like repair of a few potholes to me."

If the residents lose they will be made to pay for the road surfacing themselves.