RESIDENTS of a former pit community who have waited years for new homes to replace dilapidated terraces could face further delays.

Compulsory purchase orders for land in The Hollow, Eldon Lane, could take another nine months to go through before the site can be offered to developers.

Wear Valley District Council has been trying to buy the land since July 2000 but has been unable to trace the owners of some unregistered plots.

Fifty homes in The Hollow have already been bulldozed under a housing renewal scheme and private developers are said to be interested in buying the site.

Now the council must apply to the Secretary of State and demonstrate that it is in the public interest to take over the area and offer it for sale.

The council's regeneration committee agreed to seek the orders this week.

But committee member and Dene Valley Parish Council chairman Chris Foote Wood blamed the Government funding system and the council's shortage of cash for some of the delays.

He said: "Residents have already waited too long. The process is painfully slow and people are fed up.

"The district originally had a ten-year plan for the area but it is obviously going to take much longer than that.

"If we had been given the money to do the whole development in one go, rather than do it piecemeal, it would have been better."

Homes in Randolph Street, another part of the Eldon Lane Housing Renewal area, have been saved from the bulldozers.

A survey of properties, which also asked residents for their views, recommends that it should be included in an improvement scheme and given grant assistance.

This would include re-pointing and raking out brickwork, repairing render, providing new walls and gates and security lighting.

Residents would be asked to pay between £10 and £100 towards the cost of the scheme.

Bob Hope, the districts director of regeneration, said: "It is clear that Randolph Street is an area where people like to live and demolition is not warranted."