ISSUES ranging from house clearance to nuisance youngsters were raised at the launch of a weekly advice surgery in Burnley.

Local authority leader Stuart Caddy invited the public to call and see him at Burnley Town Hall to discuss matters of concern to them and to air their views.

Only five arranged appointments for the first of the Thursday weekly opportunities to take their grievances or requests for advice to the council's elected leader and one of those didn't arrive.

Coun Caddy said he was not disappointed at the low turn-out for the first of the advice surgeries which he said went superbly well and covered lots of issues.

He anticipated that future sessions were likely to be better attended once word got around about the surgeries, being held in a small room off the reception area at the Town Hall each Thursday from 4 to 5.30pm.

Appointments need to be made by at least the day before by ringing Simon Mahrous on 01282 477121 or by calling at the Town Hall.

The first constituent to call into see Coun Caddy was Clare Atkinson, an active member of the Caring Accrington Road Residents group

She was asking advice about house clearance in the lower part of the Accrington Road area.

She said that government Single Regeneration Budget money was available for various regeneration schemes in areas such as Burnley Wood and Accrington Road, including clearance of old terraced properties.

Clare said: "We get nothing In our part of Accrington Road from the Mitre up to the roundabout.

"I was asking Coun Caddy how we could go about getting a small clearance scheme for houses in our area higher up the reserve list. If two rows were cleared it would create a good bit of open space for the area."

Clare added: "Coun Caddy was supportive and gave me some advice which I will be following up. It was good he could point me in the right direction and I think the chance to see the council leader face to face is a good thing. I certainly think the advice surgery is well worthwhile."

Her only concern was then ten minutes was perhaps not long enough to discuss all matters in detail.

Other constituents called in to discuss redundancies, development of the new bus station, ward boundary changes and policing issues.

Coun Caddy said: "I had intended to start the surgeries in July but matters were overtaken by the disturbances and my involvement with the Task Force."

Along with colleagues on the local authority, Coun Caddy holds advice surgeries in his Barclay ward but this was the first as council leader at the Town Hall.

Future ones may include visits to a local supermarket but that has still to be decided. MP Peter Pike has held some of his Saturday surgeries at the Asda store, Princess Way.

If demand for the surgeries increases, attention will focus on more councillors being involved in the Town Hall advice sessions.