PESKY moggies have forced council architects to draw up an unusual escape plan.

Stray cats regularly get trapped in an 8ft-deep light well alongside Pendle Council offices in Nelson -- and attack kind-hearted staff who try to rescue them.

One worker, Scott Whalley, had to fill in an accident report form after one mad moggie sank its claws into his thumb.

Now Pendle Council's architects department has been asked to draw up an "escape claws" and get a cat escape plank installed so that they can get out without human help.

The lightwell is in Carr Road, next to the council's highways offices in the former library.

It is surrounded by four-foot-high railings to protect passers-by from falling in, but curious cats simply slip through the gaps in the railings and then find they cannot get out.

Highways manager Peter Atkinson said: "People tend to throw rubbish into the lightwell and the cats go looking for food.

"It is very deep and smooth-sided and there's no way out for them.

"We get strays stuck in there regularly every other month. The last time it happened a family of four cats were in there."

Staff have been warned not to try any future rescue attempts themselves but call in the RSPCA instead.

It is hoped the plank, which is set to be installed next week, will solve the problem.

Picture: Scott Whalley, who was scratched trying to rescue a cat