TENANT has accepted eviction from his council flat for the sake of a dog he claims is better behaved than some humans in the neighbourhood.

Peter Malloch, 23, and girlfriend Michelle Walker, 29, are among three sets of residents ordered to leave properties in Blackburn with Darwen Council's latest purge of nuisance neighbours.

He agreed to quit the 12th-floor flat in Bowland House, Larkhill, Blackburn, after admitting breaking his tenancy agreement by keeping five-year-old Blackie.

But he disputes claims by caretaker John Haworth and area officer Heidi Greenwood that people had complained about the animal.

He said: "I didn't have a leg to stand on when I went to court. I said 'OK, I'll move'.

"But it isn't fair to say Blackie had been causing trouble and that all these people had been complaining.

"The daft thing is that Blackie is so much cleaner than some of the people that live here and he is really quiet."

The couple agree they would rather live on the street than abandon the animal after eviction on October 8.

Michelle, who once spent a spell living in a bus shelter on The Boulevard, Blackburn, added: "It cracks me up when people say 'are you going to get rid of him?' I have been homeless a few times because of Blackie." A judge at at Blackburn County Court granted the council possession orders for three properties after hearing tenants had caused nuisance.

A 25-year-old man given was seven days to leave his flat in Parkwood Road, Audley, in his absence after witnesses said he often sat outside his first flat drinking with his stereo at full volume. And complaints against a 23-year-old woman began less than a month after she moved into her flat on the Wood Vale estate, Darwen.

Neighbours said the woman, who also failed to appear in court, had frequent visitors who caused noise nuisance and fights on the estate.

She has 14 days to leave after officers serve the eviction order.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's neighbourhood nuisance strategy was officially launched by Home Secretary, Jack Straw, in February.

So far the council has successfully applied to the courts for six repossession orders and is currently mediating in another 80 cases.

Phil Richards, director of housing and neighbourhood services for the borough, said: "A minority of people have been causing problems for the majority of fair-minded tenants in our council homes. "Those who cause nuisance will not be tolerated and it is our policy to mediate with the problem tenants to try to reach an amicable solution by which everyone can live peacefully.

"Unfortunately in a small minority of cases an amicable solution cannot be reached and our neighbourhood nuisance unit along with the council's legal department has no choice but to seek possession through the courts."

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