DREAMS of bringing a multiplex cinema and leisure complex to the outskirts of Blackburn have been dealt a final blow.

Planning officers at Hyndburn Council have revealed that the owners of a 35-hectare site owned by the Dunkenhalgh Trust, next to the M65 at Whitebirk, have found a developer to create an industrial estate on the site.

And councillors sitting on the development services committee have put paid to any hopes of plans for a cinema complex being resurrected by agreeing to a draft development brief which says the site can only be used for 'major employment purposes.'

The Whitebirk site is right on the border of Hyndburn and Blackburn, with the remaining land owned by Blackburn with Darwen Council and the subject of the £100million leisure development plan three years ago.

That project was scrapped after the Midlands-based developer Kingspark incurred spiralling costs and the government introduced tighter planning guidance restricting out-of-town developments.

At the time, council bosses in Blackburn said they would concentrate their efforts on finding developers to provide employment on the site.

In the draft development brief accepted by Hyndburn councillors, the large site within its boundary can only be developed for employment purposes.

It remains Hyndburn's largest future employment area and any developer would be expected to help meet the cost of providing a new railway station at Greenbank, on the Blackburn to Accrington line.

Brendan Lyons, Hyndburn's head of planning, said: "The owners have found a preferred developer who is drawing up plans.

"We have come up with this brief to help guide them as to what we want from the land.

"We want this is to be a major employment site, providing jobs away from the traditional low-pay, manufacturing industry.

"A cinema would not fall within this bracket. The only leisure use permissible would be a hotel if it provided conference facilities."

He added: "We also expect a high quality of design in the buildings, which we expect to be mainly warehouses and factories."

The plan was welcomed by the councillors.

Coun Janet Storey said: "This is at a gateway to Hyndburn and it is very important we get it right and make sure we attract the right jobs here."

A plan for a 12-screen drive-in cinema next to Blackburn's Ice Arena was unveiled last year, while Accrington is set to buck the national trend and get a cinema in the heart of its town centre by March next year.

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "Our priority is to get a cinema development in the town centre near to the ice arena.

"The Whitebirk site is our main area for employment opportunities and we are working with that in mind."