ONE of the most ramshackle homes in Weymouth can now be bought by the council.

Long-suffering residents have endured years of misery over rubbish-filled 35 Lennox Street which they claim is an eyesore which has blighted their lives.

Now the Government has backed public inquiry inspector Robert Sexton's recommendation that the council compulsorily purchase the three-storey terraced home, perhaps turning it into flats for the homeless.

The order has been welcomed by Stephen and Deborah Merrill who run the Crofton Guesthouse next door.

They have had to cope with damp seeping in from the run-down building. Mr Merrill said: "This is fantastic news. Our guests come here and say how lovely our property is, but they can't believe the mess next door.

"We have lived with it now for 18 years and it really will be great to have a property next door that is in habitable condition. We have been living in hope for so long and it is great that the council can now buy the property and improve it."

Mrs Merrill was equally delighted, although a little concerned at what type of homeless people might eventually move in.

She said: "I'd have preferred a private occupier because this house is between two guesthouses. If the council does consider homeless people then I hope they are ones who have been on the waiting list a long time."

The authority is facing a tough clear-up after the inquiry last year was told that the house was full of rubbish while the garden was overgrown and full of rubbish.

It still was this week when the Echo made repeated attempts to contact 70-year-old Peter Corbett from Kent who the inquiry was told owns the house.

Neighbours believe he is now trying to live at the Lennox Street address, but there was no response despite several visits from any occupant apart from a cloud of pigeons nesting in derelict roof eaves.

Weymouth and Portland mayor Lynne Herbert represents the Melcombe Regis ward and has personal knowledge of it.

She said: "To hear that the council can now use a compulsory purchase order to buy this house is absolutely fantastic.

"This situation has been going on for years and I know all about it because I used to live in Lennox Street, so I know first-hand what it was like. Many people in the area have complained to me about it.

"Perhaps we can now get on and improve it. Anything we do has got to be an improvement on what is there at the moment."

Weymouth and Portland environmental health chief Tony Beeson said: "Any house which is empty in the borough adds pressure to the homelessness problem we have.

"We want to see more properties brought back into use to improve the homelessness situation and this house will certainly be improved."

The inquiry inspector had said the property had been unoccupied since the end of 1995 and there had been numerous complaints by residents about rubbish, the state of the building which was in "an unsatisfactory, neglected condition" and its effect on neighbouring guesthouses and tourism.