BLACKBURN Chamber of Trade today backed the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's campaign to save community chemists, saying: "We need to keep them local and open".

Ronnie O'Keeffe, president of the Blackburn and district branch, said members had taken the stance because local pharmacies provided a vital public service.

The support follows backing received from MPs, local chemists, senior health officials and Age Concern.

Mr O'Keeffe said the Chamber would send letters to Blackburn MP Jack Straw and Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of State for Trade and Industry, outlining their opposition to the proposals.

Of the Chamber's 150-strong membership, six are chemists, and Mr O'Keeffe said their interests needed protecting. He said: "The Chamber covers a lot of town centre traders, but we also have traders and chemists in the outlying districts.

"If we don't fight, the smaller communities of shops, in places like Mill Hill, will lose more and more businesses and that will be a loss to the public.

"The people who tend to use local chemists haven't got cars, so can't travel. A lot are elderly, so we need to keep them local and open."

The chemists are under threat from government proposals put together by the Office of Fair Trading which will allow pharmacies to set up anywhere. Currently, chemists can only set up in an area if health authorities are satisfied it is "necessary or desirable" ensuring a fair spread in residential areas.

Campaigners, including pharmacists, MPs, health chiefs and the elderly, fear the proposals, to be considered by the government this month, will squeeze out community chemists with free-for-all pharmacies set up in areas which attract business, such as supermarkets and town centres.

The National Pharmaceutical Association is spearheading the campaign and is urging customers to sign copies of a petition which has been sent out to all of its 11,500 affiliated shops.