CAMPAIGNERS from across Pendle fighting proposals to build 1,000 houses in the borough almost found themselves without a 'home' when they turned up at Nelson Town Hall for a meeting.

The town hall doors were closed and a puzzled caretaker was in the dark about the meeting which should have been booked in the authority's diary.

The meeting on Monday went ahead with Councillor Azhar Ali, leader of the opposition Labour group, in the chair and Andy Wiggett, the council's senior planning officer. Council leader Alan Davies admitted there had been a mix-up over the booking, which had not been entered in the diary, but denied suggestions that he or other senior members of the ruling Liberal administration were due to attend.

"My understanding is that the meeting was an opportunity for the different residents' groups across the area to come together and work out how they were going to work together before meeting with the authority," he said. "We want to work with them, there's no doubt about that, because we have a common cause." The residents vowed to find alternative sites for the homes themselves in a bid to stop developers building on fields.

Campaigners will scour the streets of the borough for previously developed sites, known as brownfield sites, and count up empty homes, to gather evidence to persuade planners not to allocate greenfield areas for houses.

Lancashire County Council has challenged Pendle councillors to come up with new evidence to support the argument that so many new homes are not needed in Pendle by its next planning meeting on June 9.

Coun Ali said in 1995 Pendle had accepted 3,200 new homes were needed by 2006, of which 1,000 are still outstanding, after taking into account those already built or for which planning approval has been given.

"It is quite clear that Pendle Council has provided wrong information relating to population, birth rates and empty houses, criteria which has prejudiced our case," he added.

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