TAXPAYERS will be forced to foot the bill of making an arson-hit factory safe after the owner could not be traced.

Sunnyhurst councillor Dave Smith hit out, saying the tens of thousands of pounds needed to secure the former pneumatics factory in Equity Street ‘is money the council doesn’t have’.

The building was gutted by fire in an arson attack in September and it was deemed health and safety risk by the firefighters and council officials.

In the past four months, attempts by Blackburn with Darwen Council to find the owner, have failed. He is thought to be living in America and is liable for the cost of making the building safe.

But now Coun Smith believes the council will be forced to make it safe as it poses a health and safety risk.

Coun Smith said: “Time has now elapsed and the council has to do something about the building because it’s a health and safety risk.

“We need to make it safe. Legally it has to be done.

“If we leave it, then it will get worse and you will get the problem of children playing inside the wreck.”

Coun Smith said the amount of work needed to make the wrecked site safe would cost ‘tens of thousands’.

He added: “There will have to be scaffolding go up all around it.

“The roof will have to come off, and the walls reduced to a couple of metres high.

“It’s money the council doesn’t have at this time.

“And it’s money that could have been better spent if the owner had come forward.

“What is likely to happen is that a charge will be put on the property to recoup the costs when it is next sold, but that’s not likely for years.”

Fifty firefighters attended the blaze, which started at midnight on September 12.

Flames roared 20ft high above the roof of the boarded-up building, which residents have wanted demolishing for several years.