A NORMANDY veteran is so infuriated with Rossendale Council's decision to offer a 50-year lease on part of a memorial ground, he is to quit the Conservative Party in disgust.

Peter Cooke, 78, of Ramsey Avenue, Bacup, was just 20 when he served in the Navy and was on board craft which landed on the beaches in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

He paid tribute to the men who served alongside him but described the decision to allow a planning application to build a conservatory and approve a 50-year lease on part of Trickett's Memorial Ground in Waterfoot as 'absolutely scandalous'.

Mr Cooke said: "I was on the beach head in Normandy for three weeks and nobody knows what those men went through. Young men -- just 18, 19 and 20 years old. I still have nightmares about it to this day."

The ground was created as memorial to those who died fighting for their country.

The veteran spoke out after attending Rossendale Council's planning committee meeting to hear the verdict on an application to buy part of the ground.

A planning application to construct a conservatory was approved previously by members and Conservative councillors have now moved that the land be leased for 50 years to residents of Thistlemount Avenue, who have leased the land for a private garden for more than 30 years.

Mr Cooke, who has been a member of the Conservative Party and contributed annually to party funds for more than 30 years, said: "I am going to resign from the party because I feel so bitter about what happened.

"The Conservatives voted en bloc and it was just a farce. We applied to speak at the meeting and were not allowed to.

"I feel I have to speak up for the veterans and the 170 people who wrote letters in and have been ignored.

"I believed in the Conservative movement but nowadays I am changing my mind. If they can do this they have lost my vote."

Although the lease was a partial victory, because the sale was not approved, Mr Cooke said: "This land was left in the care of the local authority and they should not have agreed to a lease.

"Agreeing to a 50 year lease is almost as bad as selling it. It it absolutely scandalous.

"I don't believe that they should have been allowed to grant planning permission."