IT'S eyes down for council planning chiefs keeping a close watch on developments at Burnley's former Ritzy nightspot.

Contractors have moved in to demolish the 35-year-old building and replace it with a bingo club, cabaret nightspot and diner in a £4 million transformation.

But council officers have told owners Gala bingo that their planning permission card is marked for only partial demolition and not for clearance of the whole site. Gala, who will move across town from their present Empire Theatre headquarters in St James' Street when work is complete in the autumn, argued that the council had got it wrong and they would be starting from scratch on Centenary Way.

But council conservation and development manager David Ellis said the owners now appeared to accept the council's position and developments were proceeding in line with planning permission granted.

"We will be watching things very closely," he added.

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