BREWERY bosses have been urged to think again over their plans to demolish a a derelict restaurant which has been targeted by vandals.

The police became so fed up with being called to the derelict Hide restaurant building, which is next to Ball Grove country park, Colne, they wrote to owners Blackburn-based brewery Thwaites complaining that time and resources devoted to dealing with vandalism had reached an unacceptable level.

But plans by developer Livingstone Properties to pull down the Hide, which has been unused for several years, to make way for new homes were rejected by Pendle Council's Colne area committee in June, partly because of fears the land is contaminated with arsenic. Thwaites, which has been responsible for the building since 1997, said it was disappointed by the decision. Two years ago it agreed to sell the building to Livingstone subject to planning consent which has yet to be obtained.

"Over the intervening period the building has been continually vandalised and broken into by local youths," Thwaites said in a letter to the council. "We have endeavoured to keep the premises as secure as possible and even replaced timber panelling with steel doors to deter entry. Unfortunately the problem continues."

Thwaites, which agreed to the police requests for greater security, added: "We would have thought that it is in all parties interests if the existing buildings are demolished without delay in order to avert any future problems arising."

While admitting it had no power to stop Thwaites demolishing the building, the area committee agreed to write to the company saying it considered such a move a "retrograde step". Councillors asked the brewery to consider alternative uses for the building. The Hide was originally used as the offices for a tannery on the site of the country park, hence its name.