AN ex-serviceman is calling for a clean-up on the Grange estate saying it is 'like Dodge City' and unfit to live in with flats turning into slums.

Ron Yates, 80, vice chairman of the board of governors at Moor Nook Primary School, has lived in Ribbleton for 35 years.

He is calling for the police and councillors to take note of the Grange estate -- in particular the boarded up flats on the corner of Yew Trees and Fir Trees Avenue which he says are like a drop-in centre for drug users and layabouts.

Ron said: "I don't know if there are squatters there, but people are just hanging around empty flats which were boarded up. They are taking drugs and there is graffiti everywhere.

"I'm finding bottles of methadone and syringes in my garden." Ribbleton councillor Andy Campbell, portfolio holder for environment and sustainability said: "There is an officer who will clean graffiti off council property. If the graffiti is on someone else's property then we need their permission to remove it.

"There are houses on the estate which are boarded up because they are hard to let. If people know of drug pushers they need to report them to the police."

Detective inspector Martin Kay of Lancashire Constabulary is in charge of Operation Nimrod. He said that as part of the drugs squad 61 warrants have been issued for drugs offences throughout the city in the past three months.

He said: "We are flat out trying to trying to deal with the drug problem. If we receive information we always act on it. In terms of the city's problem areas we try to treat them equally, although some places demand more attention."

Ron who joined the Forces when he was 18 worked with the Long Range Desert Group -- spotting enemy vehicles on the front line. He was stationed in Libya and Egypt during the Second World War.

He said: "I didn't like being in the Forces, but it did teach me discipline and respect. I think that is what is required today."