DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott is to be asked to take action to stop builders persuading people to sell their homes for development into flats.

Eaglescliffe residents have told The Northern Echo of approaches from builders asking to buy their homes.

Egglescliffe Parish Council is writing to Mr Prescott's office after being told about one elderly resident's appr- oach from a builder.

Parish council clerk Helen Rennison said: "The gentleman told us he had felt rather intimidated and this concerns us. We feel this should be made illegal. We are writing to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

"We are very concerned if every home owner with a little bit of land is approached to sell and the developers move in."

Liberal Democrat district councillor John Fletcher is to urge Stockton Borough Council to include new safeguards in the local plan - presently being revised - to put a stop to the trend.

He says builders are taking advantage of a Government planning policy directive aimed at relieving pressure on the countryside.

He said: "That policy which says we have to have more people living inside the urban envelope and use brown field sites is being interpreted by the building fraternity and in the case of The Garth, by our local planners, as meaning you can knock down one house and replace it with multiple units.

"We feel the best intentions have gone wrong."

Bellway Homes last year demolished an Edwardian town house - The Garth - at Eaglescliffe and replaced it with a block of flats. George Wimpey is planning to do the same with another detached house hundreds of yards away.

Coun Fletcher is concerned that a reduction of family houses on the market and their replacement with flats could have a knock-on effect for local schools.

Retired teacher Joan Flint, who is campaigning to stop the Wimpey development, said: "This is of extreme significance to the future of Eaglescliffe because the fact we have four excellen secondary schools and seven primary schools in the area attracts families here. Families need family homes.

"People are not going to buy them if they think there is a risk of a block of flats going up next door."