PLANS to build a massive retail park close to a town centre have been criticised in a planning report.

It says proposals to build shops on industrial land in Colne raises serious concern and suggests another meeting should be held with the developer.

The report, which will go to Pendle Council's Colne area committee on Thursday, looks at plans to build a retail park, including a garden centre and DIY store, on the site of the former Smith & Nephew Stonebridge Mill in North Valley Road.

The mill has been demolished to make way for the complex, which will include two small industrial units, together with a car showroom, a drive-through fast food restaurant and a car wash.

Councillors are recommended to give planning permission for the showroom on part of the site on Thursday.

But council planning officer Andrew Wiggett, suggests a decision on an outline application to build on the rest of the land should be deferred while talks with the developer, car dealership giant Sanderson Bramall Motor Group, go ahead.

The report says: "Apart from the Whitewalls Estate, the site is the best of the established industrial areas in Colne and district. Therefore to see so little of these former mill sites proposed for industrial redevelopment is of serious concern. "It is wrong to simply assert or accept the argument that the site is not viable for industrial use. The only exceptional problem is that of constructing an adequate access to North Valley Road."

It admits there are alternative industrial sites elsewhere in the borough, but says many firms expanding or relocating in Colne want to stay in the town, close to their staff. It questions whether the complex will provide the 200 jobs promised, and claims some of them will simply be transfers from other sites.

"The developer should be pressed to provide a higher proportion of industrial/business use," the report adds.

Colne Town Centre Forum said the complex would hit town centre businesses and take trade away.

There are also concerns that if the work is carried out according to the latest plans, there is likely to be an increased risk of flooding from a stream that runs through the site.

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