HYNDBURN MP Graham Jones has backed his Blackburn Parliamentary colleague Jack Straw ’s latest attack on Peel Holding’s bid to get planning permission for new, larger stores on Whitebirk retail park.

He has accused the company of using “back door at night tactics to defeat Hynburn council planning committee.”

Mr Straw last week wrote an article for The Times newspaper and went on BBC Radio Four to highlight Peel’s tactics nationally and claim it was symptomatic of a nationwide problem for those defending town centres from big developments on urban outskirts.

On his website Mr Jones reprints the article, saying: “Jack Straw and I, along with Hyndburn Council and it's leader Miles Parkinson have been fending off Peel Holdings desire through expensive barristers to reverse a planning decision by a back door technicality.”

Peel maintains its planned development will create jobs and boost the local economy.