BURGLAR alarms will be fitted to empty houses instead of security screens in a bid to improve the look of a borough's estates.

Twin Valley Homes has decided to relaunch a scheme originally pioneered by Blackburn with Darwen Council before it handed over its housing stock to the the firm.

It means that the green screens which have traditionally been placed across windows of empty houses could soon be a thing of the past, except on those which pose a health and safety risk.

Instead, mobile alarms will be attached to buildings which transmit electronic signals to a monitoring station.

If the electronic signal around the house is broken, the alarm goes off, alerting staff at Twin Valley Home's head office, who then go to the scene with the police.

A similar scheme was trialled on 70 houses in Darwen in 2000 by Blackburn with Darwen Council. Within the space of three months, 25 break-ins were detected. The scheme was halted when Twin Valley took over last March because they wanted to concentrate on doing repairs.

Phil Richards, chief executive of Twin Valley Homes, said: "The green screens have a very negative effect on an area. We are trying to improve areas wherever possible and this is one scheme which we can easily achieve.

"It costs £60 a week to rent screens for each house, and the alarms don't cost that much. We also lose money if the screens are damaged when targeted by vandals.

"In some homes we may keep curtains up and arrange for lights to go on and off. It should dissuade thieves who travel from other areas from breaking into empty homes, looking for fittings to steal."

He added: "There are some homes we just can't risk people getting into for health and safety reasons. They will still have the screens."

Twin Valley Homes has just put in a planning application for more houses to be demolished. Over the next five years, they intend to knock down 1,500 unwanted homes.

Planning permission was granted for 117 to go earlier this year.

The new demolition will include houses in Levens Close, St Bees Close, Seascale Close, Silloth Close, Ulverston Close and Whitehaven Close. All are in Blackburn.