THE author of a best-selling guide to Hyndburn has slammed council chiefs amid claims that more than 100 streets and places of interest - and an entire village - are missing from a new map of the borough.

Adrian Shurmer, a former Lancashire Constabulary driving instructor, made the comments after he was sacked from the project.

Mr Shurmer was invited by Hyndburn Council bosses to help draw up the map after selling more than 150,000 copies of his own official guide and map since 1974, but his contract was terminated following disagreements.

The council's new Hyndburn Official Street Map went on sale in December priced £1.50, with proceeds to the mayor's charity fund.

But Mr Shurmer has produced a list of more than 100 streets, parks and places of interest that he says are are missing from the map - including the village of Belthorn.

He said: "It was always my intention to make the next edition of my guide free to the town via the council.

"I was responsible for content. But the draft map from the publishers had countless streets missing, wrong spellings and roads that had swapped towns.

"I refused to have anything to do with it but was not allowed to use my own index and eventually my contract was terminated, though I never refused to carry out my obligations." Mr Shurmer has been a long-time critic of the council's traffic-calming schemes and said he hoped this had nothing to do with his contract being cancelled.

He added: "People who have bought one of these maps should demand their money back. It is hardly worth the paper it is written on."

Hyndburn's tourism development officer Fiona Leinster-Evans said: "Mr Shurmer did not fulfil his part of the contract, which was to edit the map by a certain deadline.

"Our map is based on the latest Ordnance Survey map and was the most accurate we could produce. We have tried to ensure there are as few errors as possible but there are some.

"There will always be problems when using a base map because it can't be totally up-to-date. Belthorn should be on and if we reprint, that will be amended.

"The publishers have offered to do a re-print, including some amendments, next year and we are happy for them to do this. People have generally been pleased to see a new map."

Borough solicitor Gordon McMillan would not comment. A spokeswoman for Macclesfield-based publishing consultants APP said: "It was the council's responsibility to make amendments before we printed the map."

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