NEW guidelines to allow cross-channel shoppers to bring back more cheap cigarettes will have a knock-on effect on businesses in East Lancashire, it was claimed today.

The number of cigarettes which can be brought into Britain for personal use has quadrupled from 800 to 3,300 after the Government reviewed the previous amounts. Champagne for personal consumption has also risen from 80 bottles to 120.

A Customs and Excises spokesman today said it was too early to predict the outcome of raised limits but Ronnie O'Keeffe, president of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, says the decision could create problems for local businesses.

He said: "Obviously the further north you come there is probably less chance of it effecting a lot of local traders but it will do in the long term. No-one from East Lancashire will go to France just to stock up but people who go on holidays to Europe will be able to bring back six-month supplies of cigarettes which will have a knock-on effect on the local stores they usually buy from.

"Smaller businesses can't compete.

"The Government will have to do something but I doubt they will reduce the tax in this country. However, if they don't, we can see some of the smaller off licences and tobacconists going out of business.

"It is a Catch 22 situation as business people cannot go abroad and stock up, but their customers can."

Phillip Bond, vice president of Hyndburn Chamber of Trade, said: "It is difficult to say what impact it will have and I think there will be more effect down south but it probably will effect traders in the area that sell cigarettes."

Rita Walsh, secretary of Burnley Chamber of Trade, said: "This is good news for the smokers and drinkers of the world but I would not be happy if I had a small corner shop which relied on the tobacco side of the business for trade."

One East Lancashire tobacconist, Sanjay Asal, owner of Smoker's World, in Grosvenor Way, Blackburn, said: "In the last two and a half years there has been a definite decline in sales.

"There are already a lot of people who come in here just for tips and papers because they have already bought the tobacco abroad or illegally." Chairman of the Licensed Victualler's Association for Burnley Mike Igoe, who runs The Forester's Arms, Todmorden Road, said: "It might affect corner shops and newsagents but not pubs particularly."

The number of cigarettes and bottles of Champagne which can now be brought into Britain under the personal use banner equates to a six month supply.

This change was brought in after the Government decided the limits should be reviewed but the impact of the changes could take a month according to a spokesperson for Customs and Excises.

Matthew King, spokesman for Customs and Excises in the North, said: "If we are looking at cigarettes which are being brought in to be sold illegally, the number of cigarettes is only one of a number of factors we consider.

"We also look at the frequency of trips by a person.

"I would imagine we could be seizing fewer cigarettes as a result of this, but these things take time to bed in."