ANTI-SOCIAL behaviour at a block of abandoned garages Brierfield could prompt Pendle Council to buy the site.

The garage, in Richard Street, has been derelict for years but council officials have struggled to contact the firm which owns the land, which they believe is based in the British Virgin Islands.

The council’s Brierfield and Reedley committee will consider whether the authority should make a compulsory purchase order after several incidents of fly-tipping.

A previous attempt to contact the owner, Oakton Investments Limited, in November 2010, failed to draw a response.

It was served with a section 215 notice ordering it to remove all domestic waste from the land, cut the grass and weeds back to ground level, prune all trees and remove all the resulting cuttings.

Richard Townson, the council’s democratic and legal manager, said another similar notice could be served on the owners, although funding would be required. In a report, he said: “Whilst it may prove difficult to trace the landowner, it would still be open to the council to carry out the works in default.

“If the notice was to contain the same requirements as previously, I would not anticipate that the costs would be very significant.

“However, if the requirements of the notice were to include a requirement to erect a new perimeter fence, then the cost would be £10,367.”

The report also noted: “The site is on the Anti Social Behaviour Patrol Plan and is therefore regularly visited by the police.”

The cost of any potential compulsory purchase order is not yet known as the council’s property managers cannot gain access to the individual garages.

The Brierfield and Reedley committee will discuss the future of the garages when it meets at Brierfield Town Hall, in Colne Road, on January 7 at 7pm.