A MAN was arrested on Monday night at a derelict house that developers want to demolish.

Police seized the 37-year-old Knutsford resident after neighbours heard banging inside the Victorian property.

Demolished

"He is now on police bail pending further inquiries," said a spokesman.

Yesterday neighbours said that Chellaston had suffered a spate of attacks since it became empty.

One, who asked not to be named, said the Victorian property in Toft Road was now a mess.

"This house is being demolished bit by bit," she said. She added: "I object to having had to call the police out at the expense of the ratepayers. It is inviting trouble, but it is not the police's job to secure the property."

Yesterday (Tuesday) sales manager Sara Ellis said August Blake, which want to demolish the property, had ensured mortise locks were on the outside doors.

No one from the company had visited the site since Monday's incident, but she said the building was secure.

"We are aware that people can flock to an empty building, but we have tried to keep it as secure as we can," she said.

"It is secure in the normal way an insurance company would wish it to be."

August Blake first unveiled plans for Chellaston and Lyndhurst House in January last year.

The Alderley Edge-based firm want to demolish it to make way for flats and have appealed against two rejections from Macclesfield Borough Council.

An inspector has yet to consider the second appeal for 10 flats on the corner of Glebelands Road.

Yesterday planning officer Hugh Smith said the borough council could not force August Blake to secure the building.

"We have rather limited powers," he said. "The only thing we can consider is if the land is a mess we can get them to tidy it up."