RESIDENTS whose homes are earmarked for demolition are questioning the council's arithmetic.

Middlesbrough Council is poised to demolish 1,500 town centre homes.

It claims there are 800 empty terraced houses scattered across central Middlesbrough - 182 of them in the Gresham ward.

However, residents claim the real figure for Gresham is closer to 20.

Residents' spokesman Majahid Aslam said: "We're disgusted. There are ways of doing things. We agree some action does need to be taken, but why focus on our ward?

"The answer is that it's all about money. We are near the town centre and this is about the big cats - the property developers."

Residents are producing their own report for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Gresham ward councillor, Ken Walker, claims the demolition will produce a prime, multi-million pound brownfield site for redevelopment. He says Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon and the council executive are putting "profits before people".

Apart from the 800 empty houses spread across the town centre, Mr Mallon claims there are more than 300 surplus places in the area's primary schools, sparking fears that schools could be closed.

Central government demands that reviews are carried out where schools have more than 15 per cent surplus places. Four schools qualify with an average of 27 per cent.

Backers of the demolition plan argue the town has haemorrhaged 30,000 people since 1961. First-time buyers, they say, do not want terraced houses but landlords with their eyes on making a quick profit do.

Mr Mallon said: "The population drift must be halted. Radical action must be taken. Without it, Middlesbrough will become a ghost town."

Mr Mallon and his officers claim population decline means less Government grants.

Most of the houses in Gresham were built between 1911 and 1920, although some date back to the late 19th Century. The council insists a number of the houses fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Angry residents claim they were only informed of the demolition proposals on July 12, eight days before the decision-making executive meeting. Ward councillors claim to have received the "bombshell" four days before that.

One of them is Councillor Ken Walker, who was chairman of the Cleveland Police Authority when Ray Mallon was first suspended as head of Middlesbrough CID and then quit from the police.

Now they have clashed again. Coun Walker does not object to selective small-scale demolition, but is opposed to demolition on such a vast scale.

He claims: "These proposals will effectively decimate an entire community within the central residential area of Middlesbrough."

He says Gresham's harmonious multi-cultural community is an example to the rest of Britain and has invited Prime Minister Tony Blair to visit the area to see for himself.

"And this is what Middlesbrough Council wants to destroy in the name of private investors and speculators," Coun Walker said.

Turning on Coun Walker at a council meeting last week, Mr Mallon said: "I have concluded you don't care about Gresham - you care about votes."

Mr Mallon says the proposals, which include new houses, are essential to create a sustainable community.

He told the same council meeting: "This is about Middlesbrough having life or Middlesbrough dying slowly over the next 20 years.

"If a person has cancer, a surgeon does not cut out a little bit here and a little bit there. He cuts a big piece out to save the rest of the body."

Mr Aslam said last night: "Gresham voted for Mr Mallon as mayor, but it was a mistake. I fear we may have created a monster. We won't be knocking on doors for him again.

"But we are going to fight it, until we win."

Residents who voted for Mr Mallon to be mayor turned their backs on him and walked out of last week's council meeting.

"We are trying to save our homes. We were not there for the council to pick political chunks out of each other," said Ash Marron, another residents' spokesman.

Resident Eddie Johnson, who suspects his Tennyson Street house is to be demolished to make way for a service road, said: "I lost my wife through cancer.

"Why could he not use different terminology to describe an area which is already suffering planning blight?

"He could have used something other than the hurtful language he did. I think it is appalling terminology for a man in such high office."