WITH ever-increasing regularity, horror stories are coming from Larkhill Flats, Blackburn. This leads me to believe there is some long-term plan to get rid of these.

The type of person they have sometimes put in, the general lack of maintenance, the removal of caretakers living on site all lead me to the conclusion someone is waiting in the wings to snap them up for a bargain price.

My hunch is a housing association would like the land for larger-than-average families and the flats are in the way.

Only time will tell, but if my hunch is incorrect, the council is guilty of negligence at the very least.

I would put the chairman of housing's office on the top floor of one of the blocks to ensure the lifts are kept clean and in good repair.

The town hall is guarded like Fort-Knox, but the council is incapable of sustaining a live-in caretaker for the flats. The silence from the housing chairman is again, deafening.

SAM SPENCE, Ribblesdale Place, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.