A NEW work of art designed to attract visitors to the Ribble Valley has been planned for a site overlooking a quarry.

The scheme, which has been backed by a Ribble Valley Council steering group, also came under fire after a poll on the council's website saw just 27 per cent of people in favour of a Panopticon in the borough.

The favourite site for the Panopticon is on Castle Cement-owned land at the top of Old Road, Chatburn, which will act as a viewing platform overlooking the quarry.

Both residents and councillors at a Chatburn Parish Council meeting told Ribble Valley councillors and officers that the art was a waste of money, in the wrong place and likely to cause traffic chaos in Old Road.

It's the second time in a year that a Panopticon scheme in the Ribble Valley has prompted fierce opposition.

Last year people power forced the scrapping of plans to build an installation called neoSCOPE described as a large sheltering wall on top of a 500metre hill near Hurst Green. This latest attempt to get the project built in the borough will use the same artist, Cambridge-based Nayan Kulkarni, but a different design.

If it goes ahead it will consist of a four-metre high wall with a viewing platform.

Clitheroe Castle grounds and Brungerley Park, in Clitheroe, were among a number of sites considered before the steering group made up of councillors and officers who will report to the council's community committee on March 7 decided on Chatburn.

The Panopticon scheme, spearheaded by art group Mid Pennine Arts, is aimed at putting a major work of art in each of East Lancashire's six boroughs.

The scheme, funded by the North West Development Agency, aims to recreate the tourism and economic benefits sparked by the Angel of the North statue in Gateshead. Parish council chairman Ted Boden told the meeting: "I thought the point of a Panopticon was to highlight panoramic views.

"This site has no panoramic views. It looks down on a sight of industrial decline, a quarry that we were told in 1958 would be turned into a lake by the year 2000.

"It might be filled in by the year 3000 and that could be a time to have a nice viewing platform."

Vice-chairman Marjorie Birch also slammed arts bosses for getting Chatburn Primary School children involved in coming up with their own designs for the project. She said: "It's not fair to tell children to produce works of art based on something that hasn't been given planning permission."

Chris Hughes, the council's community development manager, reassured residents that no decision had been made on the location or and that no planning application had been submitted.