A PRESSURE group for the homeless has condemned a council's plans to bulldoze hundreds of houses on an estate.

Church leaders have already written to Stockton Council, protesting at plans for the Hardwick estate on the grounds that large scale demolition is unnecessary.

They accused the council of neglecting the Stockton estate and of deterring people from moving there.

Up to 500 homes on the estate could be demolished - once the largest in western Europe - with others modernised and new houses built.

The plans for Hardwick are part of a £160m, seven-year borough wide programme to revamp 10,500 homes and demolish 1,000 others.

Local watchdogs, the Teesside Homeless Action Group, said 1,276 people applied to Stockton Council for a home between April 2002 and March this year, of which 530 were accepted as priority cases. It wants to know why houses may be demolished when homeless applications are rising.

The council denied allegations of neglect and insisted there had been a drop in demand, with 15 per cent of houses in one unpopular area of the estate standing empty. Detailed consultations have been promised.