RESIDENTS have sent a petition to council chiefs, complaining about plans for a new £86million super hospital.

People living in cottages along Fancy Row, Haslingden Road, Blackburn, close to Queen's Park Hospital, are objecting to proposals to move the main entrance of the new hospital to just outside their homes.

Plans for the new entrance include widening the road, resulting in residents losing some vehicular access to their homes, and parking facilities. They are also objecting because they say the plans will increase noise and disturbance in the area.

The residents' petition also claims the landscaping will not do enough to protect their homes from the building work and that the site is a greenfield one and should not be developed.

They have sent a 14-signature petition to Blackburn with Darwen Council, complaining about the plans.

Representatives from Balfour Beatty/Charterhouse Healthcare, which are the preferred bidders for the project, have met with residents to discuss the problems, and have scheduled another meeting before the plans are heard by Blackburn with Darwen Council on March 21.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said it was a matter of "wait and see" after the first meeting. Last year, the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust unveiled plans to close Blackburn Royal Infirmary and transfer everything on to one site off Haslingden Road.

The project, which will be paid for under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), will provide state of the art facilities, including 299 beds, and will be open for patients in 2005. Developers will pay for the work and the site will be rented back by health bosses.

Project managers are still deciding exactly what the extension will look like, but a planning application has been submitted for it to house a laundry, energy centre, creche, and have new access, parking and landscaping.

The project has been given outline planning permission with conditions and managers are working with the Highways Agency to decide how the new entrance should be sited.

Jackie Hadwen, project manager for the single site project, said: "We have met with residents of Fancy Row and have taken on board their concerns.

"The points regarding the highway, are really with the Highways Agency and we will be meeting with them to look at the issues.

"We are taking the concerns of our neighbours seriously and will be looking carefully at what we can do about them. We don't yet have an answer but are aware of the concerns."