ACCRINGTON'S new cinema is on course to open in time for next summer's movie blockbusters.

Now plans are being drawn up to make the opening of the multi-million pound venture the event of the summer.

The £2million project, given the green light by councillors in the summer, will comprise a four-screen, 800-seat cinema, 20-lane bowling alley and a McDonald's drive-through restaurant.

It is being built on waste land in the heart of the town centre by Globe Enterprises, a company set up by Hyndburn Council, and local firm Barnfield Construction. The project is being watched by councils across the country because it bucks a national trend of only building multiplex cinemas at out-of-town sites.

The first sod was cut at the Moreton Street site in June when 14-year-old Emma Allardice, the teenager whose petition three years ago persuaded council chiefs and business leaders that a cinema could survive in Accrington.

Now, nearly five months on, the steel frame of the new complex has ben constructed, with the floors now being constructed.

Nigel Rix, director of Hyndburn First, the council-run regeneration company which has a stake in the project, said: "Everything is running to plan at the moment and we hope it will be open by June next year.

"The next important step for us is to sit down with the cinema operator, Metroplex, and the bowling firm and start planning the opening.

"It is hoped that it will be the event of the summer."

The new McDonald's will open several months earlier, although construction on their unit will only take place at the start of next year.

Council leader Peter Britcliffe, who joined Emma for the sod-cutting in the summer, said: "I am delighted to see work going so well on this site.

"It will bring something new to Accrington. People have waited a long time for this to happen and many thought it wouldn't happen.

"It is quite unique for a town to attract a cinema back in to its centre and the project is being watched by a lot of other towns.

"It will be a great boost to the town and I am looking forward to it opening."

The last cinema in the town closed in the 1980s to make way for the Arndale shopping centre.