RESIDENTS are hoping a pub currently up for sale will never serve another pint again -- and will be flattened by bulldozers.

The Rovers Return, in Dunoon Drive, Shadsworth, Blackburn, has been empty for several years and residents claim it has become a magnet for yobs who have vandalised it and daubed graffiti on the walls.

Resident Michael Jewell blamed youths for loosening a section of the roof which blew into his garden during a recent storm. The Dunoon Drive resident said: "The pub is just a nuisance and an eyesore. In its day it was thriving and I used to go in all the time but I wouldn't want it to be re-opened as a pub now."

It is owned by Enterprise Inns, based in Birmingham and its estates department said was on the market for £45,000. But neighbours said they hope any new owner will pull it down. John Bostock, of Bute Road, has lived opposite the pub for more than 20 years and has watched it deteriorate.

He said: "It was a good community pub once. When it first opened loads of acts played there, such as Jimmy Cricket and Cannon and Ball, but it's in a disgusting state now. It want it bulldozing."

Betty Austin, Shadsworth Estate Management Board chairman, said: "It used to be an excellent place where everybody used to go but then a nasty element crept in and it went downhill. When Whitbread owned it the management board challenged them about the noise and they had to build an extra roof and take out the windows at the back. If anybody wanted to reopen it we would consult the neighbours and certainly think about challenging it again."

Shadsworth Coun Charles Mills, of nearby Arran Avenue, said the pub closed when it became no longer viable.

He said he had brought the issue up with the council to try and stop the pub ever reopening.

He added: "It's probably too far gone to ever be a pub again. I don't think it would pass health and safety regulations. The company that bought it should hand it over to the community for the legal minimum of £1 and write the rest of as a tax loss."

But Stephen Lamb, of Enterprise Inns, said the pub would be sold with the hope of reopening it as a business.