HOME-owners who are refusing to move in a bid to stop their estate being sold will confront council housing chiefs tonight.

Thirty families face losing thousands of pounds when the bulldozers move in to clear their defective council-built properties on the St Andrew's Estate in Bishop Auckland.

Wear Valley District Council has already agreed to demolish 120 homes in St Aidan's Walk and St Cuthbert's Walk, which have been found to have asbestos in party walls and corrosive salts in their concrete foundations.

The authority's housing committee reached its decision after discovering that the cost of repairing the properties would be at least £3.27m.

Part of the committe's decision was not to pay the owners compensation, because the council did not know of the faults when the homes were sold.

Residents have been promised a full explanation at a public meeting in St Andrew's Primary School at 7.30pm.

But they are promising a stormy reception for committee chairman Belle Bousfield and housing director Michael Laing.

One said: "We have all discussed it and we won't move. None of us can afford to lose our homes. Everything we have is in our houses.

"We are all very upset. The stress is making people ill because we can't find out what is happening. We are being told different things by different people.

"We are not asking for anything more than a fair deal which means getting the market price for our properties plus ten per cent, which would amount to £40,000."

Disgruntled tenants are also planning to voice their concerns with a council team when it holds a separate public meeting in the Parish Centre at St Helen Auckland from 2pm.

The same committee voted to knock down properties on the 'old' and 'new' estates where many are boarded up because nobody wants to rent them.

One resident said: "They can expect a rough ride because there are a lot of people who don't want to move.

"Some of us have been here for a long time and we like living here."