THE owner of two Clayton-le-Moors terrace houses will have to renovate the properties after notices served by Hyndburn Council were ignored.

The houses had been left in disrepair for over eight years with neighbours forced to endure the eyesore and damage to their own homes.

Magistrates have now ordered owner Julia Hickmott to complete the works, and to pay costs of £1,745.

Neighbours of the Burnley Road houses, which were open to the elements, experienced water pouring into their properties after the roof was removed for a time.

One neighbour on the street, who did not wish to be named, said: “They are an eyesore and have been like that for a very long time.

“The other houses are all well kept but not those ones. It brings the whole street down.”

Mrs Hickmott bought the two properties, which are next to each other, in 2003 and since then had been carrying out phases of renovation work including removing inner walls and the roof.

This led to many problems for neighbours as water came into their homes and they found it impossible to keep the heat in.

Ward councillor for the street, and leader of the council, Miles Parkinson, said: “This has been an appalling period of time for the neighbours who shouldn’t have had to wait this long for basic repiars to be done.

“I have been speaking with them and they are enormously relieved it is now being resolved.”

Deputy leader Clare Pritch-ard, who oversees the councils’ campaign against empty houses, said: “These two houses have blighted the area and have caused neighbours a lot of trouble over the years.

“Our officers have had lots of dialogue over the years with Mrs Hickmott asking her to bring the properties in to a state of repair.

“However, this never happened and so we served noticed, which were ignored.

“We had no option but to take her to court and we are very serious about making the owners of empty houses accountable in this way”.

Magistrates gave Mrs Hickmott two conditional discharges each for 12 months to run concurrently and ordered her to pay the costs of £1745.