A MAN whose family are former owners of a Victorian house set to be demolished and replaced with a three storey block of flats has backed residents fighting the scheme.

5Residents fiercely oppose the plans and staged a protest outside the house, in Victoria Road, where they voiced their concerns to councillors.

Neil Wild, aged 62, of Station Road, Chapeltown, said he was shocked when he read in the BEN of the plans to pull down the house, which belonged to his family for 56 years.

He said: " My grand-parents owned the house from 1914 until the early 60s. I played there with my brother Paul all the time and I know every nook and cranny. I have such a lot of happy memories and I just couldn't believe it when I found out about the plans to pull it down."

He added: "I know that a huge house like that takes a lot of running, but I would be devastated to see it go. Flats are not in keeping with the area at all."

Mr Wild said he even has an original 1920s mower used to trim the lawns of the house. He said: "I used to always be running around the garden and climbing the trees."

Mr Wild's aunt May and her husband Tommy Horrobin took the house over from his grandparents and in 1970 it was sold to the Whitaker family who used to own Whitakers Department Store in the town centre.

Rev David Griffiths and other Heaton residents have submitted an objection to the plans on the grounds that it would seriously prejudice the amenity of Greenhill, would be detrimental to road safety, would be out of character to the area, and that it would be difficult to avoid damage to the trees.

Planners have deffered their decision until they have had another look at the site.

Developer William Hargreaves insists that it has made strenous efforts to make sure the scheme is sympathetic to the surroundings.