RESIDENTS have begun a campaign for action after claiming pupils from a nearby school terrorised them and made their lives hell.

The Pendle Street residents of the Audley area of Blackburn plan to write to Tony Blair and MP Jack Straw to get St Thomas's Centre, Lambeth Street, moved.

They claimed Blackburn with Darwen Council failed to warn them about the pupils that the school, which was made an education referral unit 18 months ago, would house.

In one incident a woman, who has partial vision in her left eye and is blind in the other, had a bottle of urine thrown over her. Hilda Thompson, 72, had hospital treatment after it caused an infection.

She claimed the school offered her flowers as an apology but she refused them. She decided against prosecuting because she wanted to give the pupils one last chance.

But then she said a group of children told her to cross Lambeth Street when traffic was coming, although luckily she heard the car.

Then Mrs Thompson and other residents, who report suffering verbal abuse and trespass on their land, then decided to take action and get the school to tighten up on discipline.

The residents have met the centre's representatives to discuss the problems, but left the meeting after being unsatisfied with the response. Peter Morgan, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council's assistant director for education and lifelong learning, said they had met the residents to try to resolve any problems.

He said he would re-affirm to pupils their responsibilities when they left the school, but claimed it was unclear whether the centre's children were solely to blame.

Hilda said: "I have started to avoid that part of the area now and I shouldn't have to do that.

"Peter Morgan kept saying at the meeting that the school was here to stay and we should work together, but why should we have to do that and put up with this?

"I walked out of the meeting in disgust. I don't think a school like this should be in a residential area."

Mr Thomas Jex, 60, said: "It has got much worse over the past few months. We're frightened to go out. They broke into our shed and have given us a lot of verbal abuse. They are really unruly children.

"We had a meeting but we ended up walking out. We were disgusted. They didn't want to know.

"These houses are for disabled and elderly people and we shouldn't have to cope with this."

Mr Morgan said: "I received a letter signed by 13 residents of nine homes in Pendle Street, complaining about the pupil referral unit. "Their complaints ranged from problems with staff parking in the street, taxis waiting to pick up pupils and behaviour problems with young people in the area.

"Myself and the unit manager met the residents to discuss their concerns with a view to resolving issues within the responsibility of the unit.

"We discussed issues around parking and how to resolve that and we also said we will be re-affirming to pupils that the centre expects the young people to behave on their way to and from the school.

"It is unclear whether the problems are caused by the pupils or children living in the area, but the centre manager has spoken to the pupils to ensure that they are aware of their responsibilities as citizens when they leave school at the end of the day.

The Thomas Centre is classed as a pupil referral unit. It is for children who are temporarily or permanently out of school as a result of illness, pregnancy, exclusion, non-attendance, and special needs assessment.