UP TO 200 people could be employed on a proposed major retail and industrial park if plans to transform a landmark textile mill get the green light.

National car dealership group Sanderson Bramall wants to demolish the former Smith & Nephew Stonebridge Mill in North Valley Road, Colne, and build new shops and workshops.

The extensive site between Newmarket Street and Windy Bank would include a DIY store and garden centre, three retail units, a block of light industrial premises, and a car dealership and tyre and exhaust centre, together with 350 parking spaces. The are also hopes for a restaurant.

Sanderson will operate the car dealership site while a major national DIY chain has already expressed interest in taking space on the park.

Harrogate-based Sanderson is staying tight-lipped about who the chain is. B&Q already has a store at nearby Brierfield and there are Do It All stores in Burnley.

An outline application for planning permission has been submitted to Pendle Council. It will be discussed by councillors on May 9.

As well as staff working on the site there could also be hundreds of customers visiting each day. North Valley Road is used by traffic by-passing the town centre and is often heavily congested.

But Peter Wilkinson, of property firm Gregory Properties, said the new centre would not make the traffic situation worse and could even go some way to solving some problems.

"The scheme includes some widening of North Valley Road in parts to create a third lane, which could help ease congestion," he said.

"In our investigation and analysis of the situation we've taken the views of the highways consultants into account."

Access to the site from North Valley Road would be controlled by traffic lights and Sanderson says they would be phased to make life easier for pedestrians trying to cross the busy road.

The move would throw Sanderson Bramall, the group behind Sanderson Ford in Burnley, into direct competition with Vauxhall dealers Holden & Hartley, which has a site just yards from the proposed centre. A tyre and exhaust centre has just opened alongside the mill. But the firm says the retail centre will not take business away from town centre traders.

In 1993 Smith & Nephew stopped denim weaving at the mill with the loss of 100 jobs. Since then the building has fallen into disrepair and has been targeted by vandals.

The mill was featured in the 1951 black and white Ealing comedy film The Man in the White Suit, starring Alec Guinness.

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