CHAIN stores have to be attracted to Colne to keep Pendle's retail sector alive, councillors have claimed.

Members of Pendle Council's Colne and District Committee went against planning officers' advice not to allow an extra mezzanine floor to be added to one of the four new shops to be built at the present Boundary Mill site when the store moves to new premises in Vivary Way.

Clothing shop Next is planning to move into the building, but demanded an extra floor for retail space.

But Pendle Council's case officer Janet Filbin said studies show that Colne has a surplus of non-food shops and that Richard Bannister, who owns Boundary Mill and submitted the application, had not shown there was a need for more of this type of store.

She added the former Kwik Save site in the town centre should be used before out-of-town sites to revitalise Colne.

But Coun Tony Greaves told the meeting the borough had to stand up for itself by working to attract high-quality chain stores.

He said: "If shops like Next cannot come to this site then the odds are that they will not come to Pendle at all, and that other shops of a similar status will not come.

"These shops feed off one another and bring more to the area, but the idea that they could be attracted to the middle of Colne is a non-starter.

"In Pendle we have been told we can't build houses, and now we are being told we can't build shops. We have got to stand up for ourselves."

Coun Ian Robinson added: "This is our town therefore it should be our decision and we should support this all the way and do all we can to encourage people like Next into the borough."

Graham Wharton, chairman of Colne's town centre forum, said after the meeting: "Something like that might bring new people into the town centre but trade is dead as it is without encouraging more and more out-of-town shopping."