A £60 MILLION plan for a retail and business park which could bring 3,000 new jobs to the area was unveiled today by a national development company.

The scheme is the second major project to be put forward by property developers for East Lancashire in the last two months.

The exciting and ambitious project alongside the shortly-to-be-opened M65 extension, includes plans for a multi-screen cinema, bowling alley, and family restaurants alongside a huge retail and business park.

The project, put together by the Wigan-based Trinity Investments, dwarfs a rival plan proposed by Kingspark Developments at Whitebirk.

Kingspark say their £20 million scheme, which is sited on land owned by Blackburn Council, would bring 350 new jobs to East Lancashire.

And Hyndburn Council could be forced to choose between the latest plan covering a green field site between Blackburn Road at Redcap and Whitebirk, which falls entirely within their area, or the Kingspark scheme in Greenbank which is partly in Blackburn borough. Blackburn Council has already granted planning permission for the smaller project but their neighbours at Accrington town hall will get the chance to discuss both applications in the coming weeks.

If both developers get planning permission, the Department of the Environment is likely to be called upon to make the final decision on which company gets the go-ahead.

According to Trinity Investments, companies are queueing up to invest in the area because of the the M65 extension.

Trinity are hoping that a major leisure park complete with roads and ready-built plots will encourage industry, retailers and wholesalers to move into Whitebirk. They have negotiated a deal with the owners of the land, the Petre Estate, to buy the 90-acre site if they get planning permission. Trinity Investments have revealed they have been holding secret talks with Hyndburn Council bosses for the last 18 months. And the developers have promised to return cinema to Accrington as part of the deal. The firm say the £10 million leisure complex could be up and running within the next two years. Roger Parker, an agent working for Trinity, said: "The extension to the motorway has made more prime land available and easily accessible.

"There are business people falling over themselves ready to move into the area. The motorway has been a long time coming but it is certainly having an impact on the market now."

David Harrison, of Trinity Investments, added: "Hyndburn Council has now got to decide what they want to see. I suggest that our scheme is bigger and better than everything else on offer for the area. This is one of the biggest development plans put forward for Hyndburn in decades."

It is of importance not just to Hyndburn or Blackburn but to the whole of the sub-region."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.