HYNDBURN MP Graham Jones is calling on private landlords to ‘pull their socks up’ and look after buildings they own.

Mr Jones posted on his Facebook page about his concerns over the former Accrington Conservative Club which was wrecked by a massive fire and also the former church on Cannon Street saying it was ‘sad’ to see their condition.

Now he is calling for action and something to be done about similar sites in the town.

He said: “These two buildings epitomise the problems facing the town centre as some private landlords own too many buildings and appear to be doing nothing with them.

“There is no point in putting in application after application and then leaving it.

“For too long, buildings like this are being left empty and we want these premises to be brought back in to life.

“There are other private landlords in the town who have bought buildings and we are not really seeing anything happening. It is about time they pulled their socks up and looked after the buildings.

“They have been neglected and these types of buildings are dragging the town centre down in the ground.

“Some of them have been left empty and we want them to look after the buildings.”

In the post, Mr Jones insisted he would be contacting the Hyndburn Council for updates with the site.

He said: “The council has a duty to keep up appearances but cannot afford to buy the buildings outright and the legislation does not give them significant enforcement powers to take action on the private landlords.

“The private landlords don’t even live in Accrington and are elsewhere so they don’t really care about the neighbours and businesses that have to look onto these buildings.

“I want to see investment in these sites.”

Cllr Miles Parkinson, leader of Hyndburn Council said: “The planning department have been engaging with the owners of the two sites mentioned.

“We want to see them developed and they have been supported through the planning process and we hope they can be developed.

“There was a trend of across East Lancashire of buying buildings and selling them on with planning approval but now we are coming out of the property decline.

“We hope we are coming through it and will see things happening.”

n What do you think of the state of the buildings in Accrington? Email LT_editorial@nqnw.co.uk.