TROUBLE-hit pensioners are being fenced in for their own protection from young thugs.
And the news is more than welcome for the tenants of sheltered accommodation in Fife Street and Gordon Avenue, in the Scaitcliffe area of Accrington.
Council housing group Hyndburn Homes will build a series of 1.5 metre-high fences around the homes after endless complaints of juvenile nuisance.
Rabina Stirzaker, warden for homes in Fife Street and Gordon Avenue, said: "This is absolutely brilliant news for the tenants. In one bungalow there have been four tenants since 1996 because they get so sick of the nuisance."
"We have waited so long for this development and it has been a desperate situation because it is all open plan. Children play and youths congregate to drink and smoke, and it is very intimidating behaviour for the old folk. The youths can still climb over the fences but they are a deterrent at least."
The plan was voted through unanimously at last week's Planning Committee meeting, to the delight of Spring Hill councillor Edith Dunston.
She said: "It will certainly make my life easier because I am always being called out to deal with reports of juvenile nuisance. The residents have had a really terrible time and I bet they will welcome this."
A police spokesman said more patrols had been carried out in the area after young yobs harassed the elderly tenants by banging on their doors and windows.
He said many residents went to bed early and had complained they were regularly disturbed by youngsters playing on the grass.
Control and development manager Brent Clarkson said Hyndburn Homes "made the application because of concerns about youths causing problems on the open area of grassland, which surrounds these elderly people's homes."
The fences will have concrete posts with palings made from recycled materials.
