A campaign to stop the council "ripping the heart" out of a neighbourhood by closing a community centre has been launched.

Ivy Street Community Association, Blackburn, is determined not to lose the facility which it battled hard to get 20 years ago.

The centre is one of four threatened with closure after a review commissioned by Blackburn with Darwen Council found them to be unviable.

Shadsworth and Little Harwood in Blackburn and Sudellside in Darwen are also earmarked for the axe because they are running at a loss.

The association believes the Ivy Street centre will be handed over to social services full time - the department already uses it for sessions four times a week.

Long-serving association member Christine Connell told a community meeting last night: "We fought long and hard to get this centre so teenagers would have a place to go. For four years we did fundraisers and got plans drawn up.

"The council didn't want it then but we didn't give up and they realised we were serious, and built the centre.

"Since then it has become a centre for pensioners, parents and toddler groups, it's used as a polling station and meeting place - it's the heart of the community, but now the council wants to rip it out.

"The fight will go on again - they said all those years ago that a centre was not needed, but we've proved it definitely is."

Association chairman Brian Booth said the new housing developments planned for the area - some 500 houses in total - made the even more important.

"In the next two years these houses will be up and there will be young families who need somewhere to go," he said.

"One councillor recently said Ivy Street didn't need such a big centre and we could have a smaller one built. Well quite the opposite is true. If they want to close this centre, we want one built that is just as big if not bigger. We will not budge on that."

Ewood's ward councillors, Maureen Bateson, John Milburn and Florence Oldfield - all Labour - are giving the association their support.

Coun Milburn said: "If this centre goes there is no hub for the community."

Coun Bateson said: "People moving into this area will want a clear voice, and that's what the centre will give them."

Council chiefs have vowed to try to improve the four threatened centres, and there will be a six-month consultation period over the £15,000 review findings.

But the Ivy Street group object to the six-month period, which they say is too short, as it will not take into account the new housing estates. The association is planning to meet with council chief executive Graham Burgess to tell him their views and stance.

The Suddellside Community Association has called an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the closure threat, at the community centre on Tuesday, November 27 at 6.30pm.