A DERELICT house is making life difficult for a young Oswaldtwistle family.

Number 31 Frederick Street has been empty for five years and has become rundown, with the recent storms wreaking havoc on the terraced property.

Simone Cleary lives next door with her husband Jonathan, and their 15-month-old son Lucas.

The council worker said: “Half of an upstairs window was hanging off. It was removed by the council but the window was not boarded up.

“So in all this bad weather, I’ve had to listen to doors slamming all through the night, not to mention the disturbance and upset to my son.”

Mrs Cleary said the roof of the privately-owned home has started to bow, and the ceiling inside the empty home is visibly ‘coming down’.

She said: “Since Hyndburn Council was closed, I contacted the out-of-hours number.

“They finally admitted they cannot get hold of a building inspector, so if anything happens - as in a collapse or wind damage - I was advised to ring the fire brigade, which I’m sure they’d be thrilled to hear.

“The council has known about problems with this property for a long time, and it seems we have to wait until it literally falls down before anything will be done.”

Mrs Cleary said she has read reports on the council’s website about its work to tackle rundown properties in the borough.

She added: “This one property is letting the street down, and I can’t get them to do anything about it.

“I have a one-year-old son who can’t sleep. I can’t ring the fire service about that.”

Nobody at Hyndburn Council was available for comment yesterday.