NEARLY 250 Rossendale council houses still do not have central heating systems and council bosses don't know where the money will come from to pay for their installation.

Councillors have been told it would cost more than £590,000 to fit heating systems in the five per cent of houses which are still waiting for the work.

Many of them are still without heating because previous tenants did not want the systems installed.

The council's housing and environmental health committee heard that as properties without central heating became empty work was being done to fit the systems.

But councillors felt that present tenants, especially families with young children and the elderly, should be top priority for central heating before empty houses. Councillor Margaret Talukdar said: "I think central heating going into empty properties when we have a lot of properties which house young children and the elderly and it is not necessarily them who turned down central heating in the first place is ridiculous.

"I find it tremendously sad that we have no feelings for our tenants who need central heating, but they are denied it." Councillor Stephen Birtwell suggested that finding out how much it would cost to fit central heating in the homes where it had been requested would be good a starting point.

But Councillor Graham Pearson said that the council needed to find a long-term solution for finding funding to complete the work on all the houses waiting for central heating.

Councillor Alison Barnes said: "This figure of £590,000 is a massive amount of money, but if we broke it down and say we could possibly do 40 or 50 houses, then at least we are moving in the right direction.

"I feel that sometimes with some creative thinking we could find the money from somewhere."

David Taylor, housing and environmental health officer, told the meeting that if there is money left over in the budget for empty property repairs it could be channeled into funding heating installation in properties where it had been requested.

But he said that re-letting empty properties was a high priority and installing central heating often makes properties easier to let, minimising the loss in rent.

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