A ROSSENDALE pressure group has called for an urgent review into how waste transfer sites are selected after claiming Lancashire County Council failed to consult over plans for a new multi-million pound centre.

Rossendale Chartists said both Rossendale Borough Council and residents were not consulted over plans to select the Waterbarn site, based in Newchurch Road, Stacksteads.

The group has written to Rossendale MP Janet Anderson; leader of Lancashire County Council, Hazel Harding; Rossendale Council leader, Peter Steen; and ward councillor David Hancock, to raise their concerns.

However, the county council has refuted the claim and says it is planning a series of meetings for residents.

The development would see the former plastics recycling business demolished and replaced by a state-of-the-art building, believed to cost around £2.5million.

It would be funded by a Private Finance Initiative to treat household waste, provide composting for green waste, and a bulking service for the transfer of recyclable materials.

Brenda Wilkinson, secretary of the Chartists, said: "Waterbarn is clearly at the bottom, rather than the top, of the list for sites."

The Chartists say it will cost more for a site that requires demolition and rebuilding, than it would for a new build site, or for a site with an existing building -- and fear it will impact dramatically on house values nearby.

Mrs Wilkinson added: "In Hampshire, the views of local businesses were a factor in the planning decision for a proposed site in Havant, yet the local businesses in Waterbarn have not even been notified of the proposal.

"We are also concerned that there has only been one report to Rossendale Council members since May 2002.

"We know the finer details of decisions on particular sites include commercially sensitive information and, anyway, we do not think that it is the role of the community to chose between one site, or another -- that is the job of councillors.

"However, we should be involved in a decision on the criteria for selection and to be sure that the criteria are applied consistently to all possible sites."

Ms Anderson MP met with residents last night in a bid to address their concerns.

Steve Brown, planning service manager at the county council, said the county would be seeking the views of local residents at a series of consultation meetings.

He said: "We are to set up a full exhibition at future consultation meetings to help address residents' concerns. Nobody wants a waste site next to them, but we want the public to know exactly what's proposed."

However residents claim the word "consultation" is misleading as the decision has already been made.

Doug Spencer, of Newchurch Road, said: "County are not consulting, they are informing us of what's going to happen. This has upset a lot of residents. I can't sleep at night thinking about this. We have built our lives round this home, but now all we want to do is move because we don't want to live near a waste site.

"There are other more suitable sites, but it's not our job to go out there and find them."

A planning application is set to be submitted to the county council in the next couple of weeks.