Angry families have sent a "hands off our street" message to Bradford Council.

Residents in the city's close-knit Hutton Street say they want to keep their paving stones.

But the council aims to tear them up and lay a bitumen-type surface.

Now the families have sent a letter and petition to the council saying: "Re-lay the lot properly, or small areas which really need it, but leave us with our pride with our road intact."

Retired resident Peter Allan, 66, said: "We want the street saving.

"The other surface looks like a crossword puzzle when the utilities have worked through it."

The locals point out in their letter that paving is being laid in the city and town centres in order to make them more attractive.

But, they say, it is inevitable that over the years the new surface will become a "hotch potch" of squares, stripes, colours and levels as water, electricity and gas engineers dig through.

The residents describe an area near the Woodman pub in Manchester Road which has the bitumen-type surface as "ghastly, unpleasant, shabby and poverty stricken".

But residents behind the petition point out that most of their flags have stood the test of time - about 60 years.

But officers at next Wednesday's meeting of the highways sub committee, which will consider the petition, will recommend removing the concrete flagstones and resurfacing the road because many of the flags are uneven or cracked.

They say the council would have a bill of £60,000 if it renewed the flags - £10,000 more than the sum set aside for the scheme.

Sub-committee chairman Councillor Phil Thornton said members were looking into ways of improving the appearances of streets after public utilities tunnelled through them.

But he could not justify keeping the flags at Hutton Street on health and safety grounds because of their condition.

'End our misery'

Fed-up people living in three eyesore streets have asked Bradford Council to end their misery.

The families live in unadopted back streets in Thornbury Avenue/Thornbury Road, Princeville Road, Listerhills, and Merton Road, Great Horton.

Council officers admit the crumbling roads which are not maintained by the authority are an eyesore but they say they are an environmental nuisance, rather than a danger. Highways sub-committee members will receive three petitions containing a total of 212 residents' signatures next week.

Officers will tell members it would cost £200,000 to put them right and none of the streets qualify for the system where pocket regeneration areas get priority. But they will recommend the streets should be added to a list of roads to be considered for making up in the future.

Thornbury residents say children are in danger because of the condition of the road. People in Princeville Road accuse the Council of neglecting their filthy street, and families near Merton Road say it has a "negative impact".

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