PLANS for a not-for-profit cafe and bike-hire shop alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Nelson have been outlined.

Mike Carr, director of The Health and Wellbeing Project, has asked Pendle councillors if they would be prepared to lend land to the project to set up the healthy eating cafe, next to Spring Bank allotments, along with a cycling project for the over-50s.

The cafe, which would be called The Meeting Place, would aim to promote healthy lifestyles by serving only natural food and having a cycle-hire facility to allow anyone to enjoy using the towpath. It would also include a sensory garden to allow disabled people to use the area.

The project, on a site which is currently flytipped, has already attracted support from Groundwork, the Primary Care Trust and the Canal Corridors Project, but cannot get the go-ahead until land has been secured.

In a presentation to councillors on the Nelson Committee, Mr Carr, from Colne, said he discovered the value of the towpath when he took his disabled wife for a canalside stroll. He gave a list of people who might use the facility, including residents, heritage groups, schools, birdwatchers and ecologists.

Mr Carr said: "If people have been stuck indoors for years and years it's going to have a very poor effect on their mental health. The canal is a fantastic, amazing resource for Pendle and an economic asset. We hope to be able to make a building that will fit in with the environment and this would be the best location."