FURIOUS residents have slammed claims that their homes are slums and should be razed to the ground.

Blackburn with Darwen Council is planning to bulldoze scores of homes in the crime-plagued Bank Top area of Blackburn.

The decision to declare the district a clearance area came after a report claimed over 90 per cent of the terrace houses around Devonport Road are unfit and should be condemned.

Many of the homes do not have proper bathrooms and kitchens and there are serious problems with damp.

Bank Top has also had problems with crime and is well known as an area frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes.

The demolition and relocation of residents will cost the council around £4million. But many of the elderly residents in Whittaker Street signed a petition opposing the decision to call in the bulldozers.

Hilda Barwise, 75, lives on the side of Whittaker Street which is not being demolished.

She said: "I have lived here for a very long time and I object to my house being called a slum.

"Everyone knows there are problems in the area but I am proud of where I live and object to it being described as a slum."

Sylvia Floyd's home is set to be demolished and she doesn't want to leave the area after 34 years.

She said: "I have lived in the same house since I was child and I don't want to leave the home where I brought my son up.

"We knew something was going to happen but we were taken by surprise when we read about it in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph."

The council is still to reach a decision on what the vacant land should be used for.