A FORMER old people's home is driving residents up the wall and causing a nuisance to emergency services because the alarm keeps going off -- and nobody knows who the owner is.

Shadsworth House was a Blackburn With Darwen Council owned old people's home until it closed in 1999. Later that year 54 Kosovar refugees moved in after fleeing their war-torn country and has been disused since they left last summer.

The Dunoon Drive property -- which has since been sold by the council -- has remained empty. The council could not say who it has sold it on to citing confidentiality.

And although it stands empty the building's fire alarms are still turned on much to the resident's annoyance -- especially when it goes off at all hours.

In the latest incident last week the emergency services were called after residents had complained to the council.

A spokesman for Blackburn Fire Station who said: "We know the premises have been empty for some time and we tried to trace the key holder to come and turn it off but we could not find anybody responsible. We looked around and there was no trace of fire but because it was quite loud and annoying the streets we decided to turn it off as a humanitarian gesture."

Firefighters were forced to break into the property to silence the alarm and slammed the mystery owners.

The spokesman added: "It is a nuisance to ourselves because when we are alerted about it we have to attend." Today the council said it had the power to impose fines if the alarm kept going off and asked for the owners to get in touch.

Coun Maureen Bateson, Executive Member responsible for Shadsworth from her said: "Noise from any alarms which sound frequently or otherwise can often cause a disturbance to neighbouring residents. The council has the power under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to disconnect alarms in such cases and to charge the owner of the property for the cost of this work which can be upwards of £150 per case. However, where we can contact a keyholder to turn the alarm off we will endeavour to do so. Anyone who has an intruder alarm or similar should therefore notify the council of at least two keyholders who will be able to silence a false

sounding alarm in the property owners absence."

Residents living close by said they are getting increasingly fed-up.

Gary Shaw, who lives opposite on Dunoon Drive, said: "This is the third time it has happened since Christmas and it's annoying living across the road from it. This time it was going off from about 1.30am right up until dinner time and we hardly got any sleep. It's hard for everybody."

Gary said wife Kathrine and three young children Amy, 11, Daniel nine and six-year-old Matthew who all attend Shadsworth Primary, all suffer from the noise and wants something done. Coun Bateson added anybody with information should contact the Environmental Health Service of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to arrange for necessary forms to be sent out.