RESIDENTS are seeking legal advice as they prepare to take out an injunction to stop their local council from demolishing their homes.

People living in the 120 condemned houses and bungalows in Cuthbert's Walk and St Aidan's Walk in Bishop Auckland, want to stop Wear Valley District Council going ahead with the demolition until rows over compensation are resolved.

The Drury-built homes are too dangerous to be left standing because they have asbestos in the walls and corrosive salts in the concrete foundations.

The 29 residents who have bought their homes under the right-to-buy scheme have been told that the council cannot pay them any more than the value of the site where their homes stand - a considerable amount less than the homes' market value.

Demolition of the homes, which are on the St Andrew's Estate, is scheduled for early next year but angry residents say they want health assurances before the bulldozers move in.

At a meeting on Saturday morning one resident said: "It is not just the homeowners who have worries. Those who are renting are already being panicked into looking for private rented accommodation and there are four people in for each house that is available."

Another said: "We do not want the demolition to start until things get sorted out. It is not just the money, it is the health issues. People do not want to be living her when it all starts."

Betty Todd, who was also at the meeting, said: "Most of the people who moved here in 1970 came from the category D villages of Witton Park and Eldon Lane. They lost their houses then and got no compensation for moving and now it is happening to them again. They are losing their home for a second time."

A delegation that will include three councillors from Wear Valley District Council and two residents will travel to Whitehall in London to call for help from the Government which they say has a moral obligation to compensate them.

Opposition councillor Chris Foote Wood said after the meeting that he and the residents were opposed to a phased demolition programme which would leave some residents living among dereliction.

He said: "We need to stop the council from moving forward with the demolition."