REPAIRS have been made to a disused Blackburn pub after the owner was threatened with court action.

The old Corporation Park pub, in Revidge Road, was sold around a decade ago, and has stood empty since, after the owner was refused planning permission to turn the building into an Islamic madrassah.

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Residents had called for the disused pub to be secured and repaired after it became a magnet for vandals.

After their initial pleas were ignored by the owner, Tee Sheth, Blackburn with Darwen Council served him with a section 215 notice under the Town and Country Planning Act, requiring remedial work to be carried out to the property, which is in a conservation area.

This included work to improve the frontage, such as sprucing up the windows and repainting the doors, and also repairs to a stone wall that had been damaged in a car accident.

Mr Sheth was ordered to carry out the remedial work by February 9, and has already complied with the notice.

But residents Mike Chamberlin, 78, and his wife Martha, 53, said they would like more to be done to restore the building to its former glory.

Mrs Chamberlin said: “It’s a conservation area, the area around the park.

“The council said to Mr Sheth that he had to make the pub look reasonable, even if he doesn’t do anything with it.

“We’re very pleased that something’s being done, but whether anything else actually happens we don’t know because we’ve heard things for years and years.

“We won’t believe anything until it actually happens, but we hope so.

“There have been so many different suggestions and plans, none of which have actually happened.

“Whether the building will ever be used at all we don’t know, but we’re pleased something is happening.”

Mr Sheth said he had no current plans to carry out work on the building, beyond the repairs ordered by the council.

He said: “There are no immediate plans to develop the property, but nothing is ever ruled out.

“The work was done on the basis of what needs doing. That was what the council asked us to do.

“I’d always be interested in selling it if the price was right.”

Corporation Park councillor Arshid Mahmood said: “The owner is complying with what the council is asking for.

“We’ve given him a short space of time to do remedial work.

“It’s a conservation area, and it’s great that he’s doing something to build it up to some sort of standard so it’s not an eyesore.

“We’re grateful on behalf of the neighbours that something is being done.

“We hope he will be able to do something to build it up to a liveable standard.

“It’s a lovely historic building, and I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in it, just not in the state it’s in.

“It could be a lovely home for someone.”