RESIDENTS in a troubled area of Bolton have won a battle to stop a house being turned into bedsits.

Town hall planning officers refused permission for a large, detached Victorian property in Bradford Street, The Haulgh, to retain its multiple occupancy status.

Neighbours and the police believed allowing the house to be separated into single flats would increase the problems of drug dealing and anti-social behaviour in the area.

The Bradford Street section of The Haulgh has been plagued in recent years with prostitution and drug dealing. Two vice girls have been murdered in the area in the past 18 months.

At the house -- a former nursing home -- 14 separate rooms have been used until recently to provide accommodation for individuals in their own locked rooms, with each floor having a shared kitchen and bathroom.

But as well as residents objecting to the plans, crime prevention officers also fought the proposals on the grounds that it was likely to increase criminality and the fear of crime for local residents.

Janet Strong, who lives in the area and is chairman of The Haulgh Community Partnership, said she was delighted with the decision.

She added: "We have been working with the council to try to stop these buildings being turned into bedsits.

"We are confident this decision will go towards helping cut crime in the area.

"These are very attractive buildings and we want families to live in them."

Planning officers and local residents have voiced other objections to the application, centred around parking concerns and a lack of outdoor facility space.

Residents from the Haulgh Community Partnership also objected, claiming that such poor standards of outdoor facility space provision created an area that is not balanced or stable.

Planning committee chairman Prentice Howarth suggested that it may be better if the house was turned into three flats for couples, rather than letting a house in a prominent part of town stand empty.