A TWO hundred signature petition in protest of plans to create a new drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in the middle of a residential area has been lodged with health bosses.

Residents have collected 214 signatures in protest of plans to create a new drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in the middle of a residential area.

East Lancashire Teaching PCT has accepted the petition which will be given to the chief executive and be discussed at various trust meetings.

Residents in Avenue Parade, Accrington, and neighbouring streets such as Bold Street, have signed a petition instigated by Elisa Hargreaves, John Barker, David Norcliffe and Pat Baron all of Avenue Parade.

They have organised the petition after learning that Peel House Medical Centre, in Avenue Parade, Accrington, is to be transformed by East Lancashire Teaching PCT and the Lancashire Drugs and Alcohol Action Team.

They claim the plans are ‘secretive’ and the 214 residents have signed the petition which states ‘We the residents have never been informed by letter, that this centre would be compulsorily forced upon us.

“We believe that the Primary Care Trust have acted in an ethical, heavy handed way, without thought and consideration to residents, nor has there been a consultation meeting to residents.’ The four, with the support of the community, are demanding that the centre should be placed ‘in or near an appropriate non-residential area.’ They have suggested that East Lancashire Teaching PCT should consider putting the centre behind or in the Pals Centre, Paradise Street, Accrington.

The PCT has said the rehabilitation centre will be for residents of Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley who at present have to travel to Blackburn for help.

In a letter Elisa said the petition represented “the deep feelings of opposition to this project by the residents of lower Avenue Parade.

"These lists are by no means exhausted.”