DERELICT properties need to be dealt with on the same lines as anti-social behaviour.

In East Lancashire, old buildings in private ownership are too often left deteriorating or in dereliction.

While some are renovated or demolished by owners in a timely manner, others are left decaying for years, often abandoned.

Dilapidated buildings with broken windows and crumbling masonry brings down neighbourhoods that might otherwise be cared for a lot more by the people who live and work there. A loss of pride by all.

Two such examples I named recently are the Con Club and Cannon Street church in Accrington. The culprits, the owners of these buildings, usually don’t live in the local area and have no inclination to spend money on them.

Many great buildings populate our towns and town centres yet they are just allowed to deteriorate. Take the long parade of buildings on Blackburn Road, Accrington. Take a look at the many derelict factories or old shop rows in East Lancashire.

Many MPs and councillors who appeal to the owners to do something usually take the brunt of the public anger. The council is to blame for everything - when in fact it isn’t.

In the case of these two buildings, the council had passed several planning applications over a decade yet not a bucket of cement has been mixed.

The out-of-town wealthy owners usually have little personal investment or/and are trying to make a fast buck.

All governments have failed to recognise the scale of the problem, particularly in post-industrial communities. To often bothered about personal civil liberties and not the loss of public amenity or wider cost to others affected.

Much more needs to be done to ensure that there is more social responsibility in the upkeep of buildings that have fallen out of use.

Current legislation means that local councils have limited powers to properly enforce building control work on a property without needing to make a costly compulsory purchase order or fund works in default. Invoicing a long-distant front company for remedial works not knowing if they will pay it is a disincentive.

Why should the taxpayer subsidise all this laziness and frugality of someone else or have to foot the bill for all the bureaucracy involved?

I believe it’s time councils were given tough new powers. Publication of the culprits would help too so the public can find out who is responsible for bringing down their town centre and local areas.