COUNCILLORS were last night (Wednesday July 2) being urged to order the total clearance of the Rectory Road area of Stoneyholme, Burnley.

Housing officers say demolition is the best way to solve the area's massive dereliction problems.

Only 29 of the 87 houses at the west side of Princess Way are in good repair, and 47 are unfit to live in. A third are empty. If the area is bulldozed it will leave an ideal site for industrial development.

But eight residents are not prepared to move, and some of them were ready to make their anger known at last night's meeting at the town hall.

The council says the new government is likely to start paying relocation grants of up to £20,000 to compensate people whose homes are demolished and cannot afford to buy new ones.

Clearance project manager Scott Wise said that other schemes, such as improvement grants and block repairs, had been tried for years in Stoneyholme and had failed.

If the go-ahead is given, an estimated £1.7 million will spent on demolition and the site will be cleared within three years.

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