A LEADING councillor has accused objectors of "trawling" for support in a bid to convince people there is widespread opposition to the redevelopment of Blackburn town centre.

Coun Ashley Whalley, Blackburn with Darwen Council's regeneration boss said he suspected many people who had signed a petition against the scheme would support it if they knew exactly what was being planned.

A 3,000 name petition and around 300 letters of objection were received about plans for Blackburn town centre but council officials today claimed many are the same letter with different signatures.

The closing date for objections to road closures crucial to Blackburn with Darwen Council's Town Centre Action Plan, including the pedestrianisation of Church Street, was last Friday, Janaury5.

Coun Whalley said: "I suspect that many of the original signatories have either discovered that they had been misled or have weighed up the benefits that this scheme will bring to the whole borough and the town centre in particular and have reconsidered their position."

A spokesman for the council said: "All the letters will be treated as individual letters of objection."

Objectors to the scheme have included Morrisons supermarket and local hairdresser Jeff Stone.

Coun Ashley Whalley, the council's executive member for regeneration, said: "We expected an objection from Morrisons given the position they have taken.

"There are still members of the Chamber of Trade Church Street sub committee who have been trawling for objections around the market and town centre as well as a number of smaller traders who feel that they have genuine concerns which we acknowledge.

"I have always held the position that the 3,000 signatories of the petition genuinely believed what they were being told by the organisers of the petition was the truth."

Coun Whalley said over the last 10 months plans for the town centre had been made "crystal clear" through a wide publicity campaign.

He added: "We all need to remember that this is a regeneration scheme not a road scheme, which will make Blackburn the undisputed shopping centre of the East Lancashire region and hopefully beyond."

Peter Hobkirk, president of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, said many of the petitions had been placed in shops around the town centre for people to sign. The petition said: "Cross town shopping, five miles or one. We believe it is in the interests and convenience of shoppers to keep Church Street open."

He denied those signing the petition had been misled, and said people had been told about scheme and asked to make up their own minds.

Mr Hobkirk said he was not surprised only around 10 per cent of the number of people who signed the petition also wrote to the council objecting to the plans for Church Street, and said the chamber of trade still opposed the council's plans.

He said: "If there was a petition about fox hunting you would get lots of people signing it, but when you ask them to put pen to paper and write to their MP you would probably only get 10 per cent doing it. I think that's about normal."

A spokeswoman for Morrisons said the company had been told there were around 380 objections to the scheme.

She said: "Given the significant number of individual objections, it is disappointing that the council appears to be belittling such a strong indication of depth of feeling against their proposal.

"We trust that in accordance with proper procedure, councillors will give every single objection their full and fair consideration."