FLOODING victims on a housing estate are to be offered temporary new homes.

Up to 40 people in Wordsworth Close and Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle, have been told they can move to other council properties until the flooding problem is solved.

A sub-committee will also be set up for all victims of flooding as part of an area council scheme.

Coun Peter Britcliffe, chairman of the area council, said: "A meeting reviewed the key actions which the council can undertake for the residents in the affected estate.

"It was decided to offer rehousing to council tenants who wish to take up the offer of moving from the estate and that as much help with this process as is necessary be given by the officers."

Other decisions, he said, were that road gullies and general estate gullies be cleaned and freed of debris from the downpour and that flood defence measures be put in place to reduce the severity and frequency of the fear of flooding.

Coun Britcliffe added: "We realise this is a very difficult problem but it is so difficult to get things done.

"When people are living in fear of a rain shower it is absolutely dreadful."

David Parry, neighbourhood manager for Hyndburn Council, said the offer of rehousing was only open to council tenants who lived in Thwaites Road and Wordsworth Close who had suffered flooding problems and were considered to be at a reasonable risk.

This could effect around 40 houses.

He said: "If people want to be moved the council will help them but it is up to them.

"We are acting on behalf of tenants but we are also a victim of this as landlord and we are giving United Utilities our help and assistance so that hopefully a long term solution can be found.

"Solving this may take a length of time and it is not fair on the tenants to wait that time as we cannot expect them to live in fear every time it rains. A line has to be drawn at some stage and this is part of that procedure."

Tenants who wish to be relocated could move to other properties within Hyndburn, he said, depending on availability and their personal merits although priority would be given to serious flooding cases.

He said the future of properties that may be vacated had not been discussed in detail but options would include the return of existing residents after interim measures or long term solutions were found or moving new families after solutions were found.

Residents in the Wordsworth Close and Thwaites Road area have been flooded more than half a dozen times in two years and other properties in Oswaldtwistle and Rishton have also suffered.

United Utilities last week announced that they would be using a virtual reality mock-up of the Oswaldtwistle estate's drains to establish where the problems stemmed from so a solution could be found.