A SCHEME to replace prefabricated flats on the Staghills Estate in Newchurch with bungalows has hit a financial snag.

Rossendale Council is planning to sell land off Woodside Crescent to West Pennine Housing Association, which would pay to build 13 bungalows to replace the Orlit flats.

The flats were originally three-bedroom prefabricated houses which were converted into flats on two storeys.

But surveys of the land have revealed it had been used to dump rubble and would need to be stabilised first -- at an extra cost of at least £1,000 per property.

Hareholme Councillor Mollie Disley said: "There was a meeting with residents, council officers, West Pennine Housing and local councillors.

"West Pennine has found out that when a lot of the old Newchurch was demolished the rubble was put into this site and so in its present condition it is not suitable for building.

"Most of the residents in the downstairs flats are in their 70s and they are very concerned about what is going to happen.

"They don't know if the building is going to go ahead and if not are they going to be moved out to other areas of Rossendale.

"And if it doesn't then the flats are going to have to have a lot of money spent on them and people will have to be moved out.

"The flats need rewiring, they are draughty, the bedrooms are extremely cold and they need insulating because they are so noisy."

But chairman of health and housing committee Coun Stephen Birtwell said he was confident the scheme would go-ahead, but said the council would be having negotiations with the housing association as to the cost of the land. He said: "The new buildings may now have to be built on a raft with four piles being sunk for each property.

"We want the scheme to go ahead because it will be very beneficial for that area. This is a bit of a snag, but it is nothing really drastic and I don't anticipate it affecting the time scale for development."

It is hoped the scheme will get planning approval by December, purchase can then be agreed and work should start in January with an expected completion date of December next year.

Regional director of West Pennine Housing Association Allan Ramsay said: "Our structural engineers will be making recommendations as to the cost implications of what the survey has revealed and we will be reporting back to the council in the next few weeks."

He said he hoped the delay would only affect the scheme in terms of weeks rather than months.