PLANS for a £30million leisure complex including a 10-screen cinema in the heart of Blackburn were unveiled today.

Bosses at Manchester-based developer Peel Holdings today confirmed they were drawing up new plans for a site in Audley, and expect to sign a deal with a major cinema operator within three weeks.

And they said talks would begin with a series of other major firms about other leisure attractions on the site.

No start date for work has been agreed, but the revamped development is expected to create more than 300 jobs and was today welcomed by council officials and traders.

Peel said firms running nightclubs, bowling alleys, fitness centres and restaurants have all shown an interest in the site, which covers a 10-acre site running from the rear of Blackburn Railway Station to Lower Audley.

A retail development project on the site sitting alongside the multiplex was completed in March.

Rossendale-based James Whittaker, development manager for the new Blackburn project, said: "We expect negotiations to be concluded with a major cinema operator in two to three weeks time.

"Overall, the leisure part of the development will cover 100,000 square feet and the cinema especially is a very large development."

Peel -- which developed Blackburn Ice Arena and also owns Liverpool Airport and the Trafford Centre in Manchester -- was first granted planning permission for a leisure and retail development in 1998.

Last year the firm, with support from Blackburn with Darwen Council, managed to buy all the land on the 10-acre site, much of which used to be the Clayton Goodfellow Ironworks.

In March this year, phase one of the project opened, the retail side of the development. Discount clothes shop Matalan and office supplies store Staples have both moved on to the site. The retail phase was estimated to have cost £15million.

Although Peel has always said it was trying to get a cinema operator, it has always refused to confirm it was its only plan for the site. Its planning permission stated 'leisure use' which could have meant anything from a fitness centre to a nightclub.

Mr Whittaker refused to state which cinema operator the firm was talking to.

However, the firm already deals with several chains, including UCI, which runs one of the country's largest cinema multiplexes within Peel's flagship Trafford Centre.

Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "A multiplex cinema will obviously bring in more and more people from outside of the borough and that is good news for our town centre regeneration plans.

"This is yet further indication that the Town Centre Strategy is showing dividends bringing with it investment and more jobs."

Ronnie O'Keeffe, president of the Blackburn Chamber of Trade, said: "Something like a cinema is very welcome for the town centre as it will be another attraction which will hopefully draw people in."

"I am not so sure about a nightclub there because people do live quite close by."