REGARDING your article, "Right of appeal for clearance order residents" (LET, September 16), Councillor Rafique Malik implies, along with many of the ruling Labour group, that the 4,000 to 5,000 surplus homes in Burnley are responsible for the town's depressed housing market.

This logic suggests that to demolish surplus homes would create a housing shortage and therefore the value of remaining properties would boom.

If Burnley is struggling to attract people to the town when property can be purchased for as little as £1,000, then housing shortages are not going to encourage greater interest.

In the article is the claim that "vacancy rates of up to 92 per cent in some streets in the area have led to high levels of disorder." This begs the question, when only eight per cent of property is occupied, who is there to be disorderly?

It is absurd to suggest that empty or derelict properties cause vandalism and disorder. It is the vandalism and disorder that creates empty properties and falling demand.

Windows of empty houses do not implode; doors do not fall from their hinges, fixtures and fittings leap from walls. The reality is that the lawless element within these areas are allowed free rein to do as they please.

Coun Malik would do well to spend money on more police rather than the bulldozers.

No-one wishes to live in a lawless neighbourhood, but in many areas of Burnley there are those who would, given the necessary help and encouragement, begin the process of regeneration without the need to rip the heart from their communities.

Give these people the protection of a lawful society and they will have the confidence to rebuild. This security appears to have been neglected by those who have been elected.

The policy of demolition has been the cornerstone to the council programme for as many years as I can remember and at every new erasure of history the town dies just a little more.

Our MP now advocates the amalgamation of towns throughout East Lancashire. This can only lead to the dilution of our individuality and our identity.

JOHN A CAVE, Burnley (full address received).