A "CLAUSTROPHOBIC" meeting on January 29 left some Blackpool businessmen unhappy with the council.

The meeting of the Federation of Small Businesses, attended by Blackpool Borough Council leader George Bancroft and chief executive Graham Essex-Crosby, took place at the Norbreck Hotel.

Tempers flared in the room which contained around 200 people in an atmosphere described by Councillor Bancroft as "claustrophobic."

David Gee, 35, who has a shop on North Promenade, said he feels the council didn't answer the real questions the business community of Blackpool wanted answering.

"I felt at the meeting that the councillors were asking the opinion of small businesses on big business ideas," said Mr Gee, who has been involved in the tourism industry all his life. I asked if we are looking at the regeneration based entirely around the casinos -- which depends on a change in legislation -- what if those changes don't come? "What do we do then?

"People want certainty and reassurance and I don't think we were given that.

"I am not politically motivated and I only have the interests of me, my family and the people of Blackpool at heart."

But Councillor Bancroft, pictured here, said he was not at the meeting to talk about casinos, but rather the regeneration of the town as a whole.

"I felt the meeting was perfectly adequate and I got through the presentation and the submitted questions with no problems at all", he said. "I, personally, don't feel the room was big enough for the meeting and there was a claustrophobic atmosphere.

"The problems arose when the microphone was handed over to the floor and some people, in my opinion, were not asking proper questions but ranting.

"And when people do that I vehemently answer back, giving as good as I get.

"The regeneration of the town depends on entrepreneurs and people investing in the town, so as a council we would be mad to say we would ignore small businesses."

The recommendations of the Gaming Review Body are due to be passed to the Home Secretary in June. He will then decide how to proceed on the question of changing the gambling laws.