MORE THAN 90 per cent of St Annes residents oppose council plans to sell off part of Ashton Gardens, controversial survey results show this week.

Supporters of Ashton Gardens (SOAG) say 93.9 per cent of those who responded to May's referendum said 'no' to Fylde Borough Council selling parts of the Clifton Drive park, including the former Ashton Institute, to raise cash to attract a lottery bid.

SOAG broke a partnership with Fylde Borough Council to carry out the referendum, which some councillors then branded 'misleading and one-sided'.

But SOAG insists the results are 'very much in tune with public opinion'.

"We tried to persuade the council to hold a full referendum, but they only wanted to lead a consultation exercise using a sample of residents. We could not agree," said one group member.

SOAG said its referendum - asking 'Do you think any of Ashton Gardens should be sold, even if it is a small part?' - went out to several thousand St Annes households and drew 1,033 responses.

Its president, Arnold Sumner, said: "St Annes residents listened to what we said, and read the council's abundant statements in the newspapers. Now they have expressed their view."

SOAG has asked the council to drop the planned sale, and says it is 'following up other lines of inquiry', including the financial and legal aspects of the plans.

The council however still insists that the sale of 0.6 per cent of the gardens is necessary to raise £500,000, which could attract matched Heritage Lottery funding of £1.5 million to revamp the historic park.

Cllr Susan Fazackerley, chairman of the task committee set up by the council to work with SOAG, slated the referendum.

"Having seen the literature that was sent out as part of this survey, I am not surprised to hear of this result.

"The information that was sent out by SOAG was incomplete, one-sided and misleading and we could not expect anything other than a distorted outcome.

''We had offered SOAG a chance to take part in a joint consultation exercise that would be valid, fair and binding for both the pressure group and the council. However, SOAG decided to deny the people of St Annes a real chance to have their say, instead preferring to conduct their own loaded and unbalanced referendum," she said.

But the council may now decide to call a public meeting. Ashton ward's Cllr Colin Walton, a former member of SOAG, told The Citizen (May 20 edition) that a public meeting would have to be called if the referendum results showed public support for SOAG.