MILLIONAIRE businessman and benefactor John Lancaster has made another big donation to charity.

The Ultraframe founder, who stepped down from the Clitheroe company earlier this year, has given more than £1million worth of shares in the firm to his charitable foundation.

When he announced his retirement from business, Mr Lancaster said he wanted to devote more time to the J & R Lancaster Foundation, which he set up with wife Rosemary when Ultraframe was floated on the stock market in October 1997.

The foundation raised more than £80million three years ago when it sold shares in the company that Mr Lancaster had donated.

The money raised from the sale of the 15 per cent Ultraframe stake was invested and the income generated - believed to be around £5million a year - is used to fund existing and new projects.

The foundation has already donated millions to a wide range of good causes across the world, including a Christian record label and the Gold group, run by son Steven, which is a peer education initiative committed to the social, moral and educational development of young people in the Ribble Valley.

The Lancaster Foundation is also heavily involved in an Aids hospice in Johannesburg and proposes to invest £3.5million in the renovation of the Grand Cinema, which Steven is developing along similar lines to a facility in Bristol managed by Christian youth charity NGM.

Sir Cliff Richard has written a note to John Lancaster claiming the centre will offer Clitheroe youngsters a great opportunity.

Mr Lancaster today confirmed he had made the donation, which would be used to continue the charitable work of the foundation.

A committed Christian, Mr Lancaster and wife are members of St James' Church, Clitheroe.

He launched Ultraframe in 1983 from a unit in Duck Street, Clitheroe, with a workforce of two, and masterminded its growth into the world's largest supplier of conservatory roofing systems employing more than 500 at sites in Salthill and Lincoln Way, Clitheroe.

Geoff Jackson, chief executive officer of the Trinity Community Partnership, which has worked alongside the foundation on several community projects, said: "This is just typical of John and Rosemary's generosity, which touches a wide range of projects in Clitheroe and abroad.

"Their influence is remarkable."