A MASSIVE campaign to stop a proposed industrial and leisure complex on green fields in Colne is to take to the streets this weekend.

Opponents of Colne businessman Graham White's plans to build the complex, including a cinema, supermarket and business units, at the end of the M65 are to distribute petition forms to shops in the town centre in a bid to drum up support against the controversial scheme.

Campaigners also plan to gather signatures on Saturday in the town centre itself.

A public meeting is to be held on December 7 at 2pm at Primet Hill Community Centre to allow local people to have their say on the plans.

The Greenfield Residents Association, which is co-ordinating the campaign, is hoping to persuade councillors to refuse the complex planning permission when they discuss the scheme in the New Year.

Mr White wants to build the complex on land off Vivary Way, part of which was earmarked for the M65 eastwards extension before the road plans were dropped.

The project would include a car park for 1,450 vehicles, a lake, a pub/diner and a fast food outlet and create up to 740 jobs according to the businessman.

But opponents claim the scheme would kill off town centre trade, make life a misery for nearby residents and destroy a valuable green field site which is home to a wide range of wildlife.

They also claim the cinema is not needed because otherss are being built in Burnley and Blackburn, and the complex would create up to 20,000 extra car journeys a day, adding to traffic congestion.

Instead the association wants the area turned into a community woodland for the use of everyone.

Chairman David Duxbury said: "This scheme is going to create a mini-town on the outskirts of Colne. We want to preserve the site as a haven for wildlife and create a community woodland open for people to come and enjoy.

"We're going to meet with the Woodland Trust with a view to seeing how to go about creating this woodland area. We don't just want to fight this scheme, for years we've known what we've wa nted to do with that land.

"Part of our campaign is to try and dispel some of the myths that have been spread."

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