SURGERY rather than sticking-plaster treatment seems likely to be the council's choice tonight as the solution to scores of slum homes in a crime-plagued part of Blackburn.

And as 97 per cent of the Victorian houses in the five streets in the town's Bank Top ward are officially unfit - many are riddled with damp and are crumbling - demolition and relocation of the residents does appear to be the best option.

This is particularly so as, despite two petitions from householders opposed to wholesale clearance, almost three-quarters of the people living there want their homes knocked down, not repaired.

Yet, as another slice of inner-area Blackburn stands to disappear - albeit slowly over four years - with the £3.5million demolition looking set to be approved, it is vital that careful consideration is given even at this stage to what replaces it.

This is because what has dragged down this area and made so many eager to quit is not just the age and condition of their homes, but the still-relatively new housing, dating only from the 1970s, that is nearby in the Johnston Street area.

Nothing less than a planning horror built in rabbit-warren fashion around walkways, it has become a perfect haven for the drug-users and prostitutes that now infest the area.

If, as is most likely, new housing takes the place of these slums - scrupulous thought must go into the design so that old problem housing is not replaced by a new variety.