PLANS have been announced to build East Lancashire's first "green" business park.

Environmental charity Prospects is behind the £2million proposals which could see an industrial site built that would be entirely environmentally friendly.

Coach Road Meadow, an 11-acre site on the edge of Oswaldtwistle and Church, has already been bought by the group to house the business park.

Phil Barwood, the chairman of Prospects, said the site would generate its own electricity and contain a treatment plant to deal with all sewage created.

Mr Barwood said: "All of the buildings would be designed to perform in an energy efficient way.

"That means insulating buildings to minimise heat loss, maximising natural light and using low-energy products.

"We are hoping to attract environmental businesses onto the site, such as manufacturers of environ-mentally sound products, recycling firms and renewable technologies."

He said that two potential partners for the green business park have already been identified.

A study has been carried out into how the project would work and a planning application is expected to be submitted to Hyndburn Council before Christmas.

Mr Barwood said if planning permission is granted an arms-length company would be created to manage the park and raise the cash needed. It is hoped the money would come from investors and grants.

Mr Barwood added: "The usual green business park you hear about is a site that has some environmental elements tagged on to it.

"The idea here is to create a business park that is totally green in concept. That means from the design of the buildings and the management of the site. We would hope to put in place every practical environmental measure."

He said the original idea was to have a collection of small 3,000 sq ft units at the site. But after interest from two larger companies, the park may well be dominated by two larger 20,000 sq/ft units and around five 5,000 sq/ft workshops.