PENDLE Council's consultation of residents in the Whitefield area of Nelson on the future of their homes was described as 'inadequate', 'misleading' and 'unsustained' during the public inquiry into the compulsory purchasing of the houses.

Stephen Glebe, a chartered town planner and witness for the Heritage Trust for North West, told the inquiry he believed the council had failed to understand the community disruption the demolition would cause and the contribution physical property makes to a social and economic place, as well as the failure to recognise the historic context of the area and its importance to the local community.

He said that more recent surveys and evidence from the English Heritage suggested that the condition of individual properties was less bleak than the council's consultants suggested.

In relation to the Symonds survey, carried out for the council, which found that 60 per cent of houses were unfit or needed substantial repair and that ten per cent of property was vacant at that time, Mr Glebe said: "Nowhere did it state that major clearance would be required on the scale proposed by this CPO.

"More recent surveys and evidence of English Heritage suggests that the condition of individual properties is less bleak than the council's consultants suggest. In 1999, many residents, supported by their evidence in this inquiry, did not appreciate that a renewal area declaration could mean major clearance."

He told the inquiry that a council statement said that the most popular option among residents was to declare the whole study area for renewal, demolish the worst houses and to 'remove as many of the remainder as finance permits'.

But he claimed that the residents had never been asked whether they would want to remove the remainder.

The Trust and members of the residents' action group put together their own questionnaire.

The inquiry, which is being held at the Civic Theatre, is expected to last a further two weeks.