GREEN campaigners claim massive developments planned for East Lancashire will not bring extra jobs.

Two rival firms are bidding to move into the area and have promised hundreds of new jobs.

Friends of the Earth have sent in a formal objection to Accrington Town Hall opposing moves to build on the outskirts of Hyndburn.

The pressure group believes the out-of-town complexes are unfair on people who do not have their own cars.

They also argue East Lancashire's shopping and business centres will be turned into ghost towns if either of the schemes go ahead.

Councillors are due to decide on whether to give planning permission for a huge leisure complex on the Greenbank site next month.

Blackburn Council has already agreed to plans for a £20 million leisure complex, including a cinema, bowling alley and family-style pubs, at Greenbank.

Friends of the Earth have slammed Blackburn councillors and accused them of not taking a long-term view.

Blackburn's Civic Society and companies in the town centre have also criticised the scheme. A second even bigger proposal for a £70 million business and leisure park at Whitebirk will also be considered by Hyndburn Council.

Both the rival development companies have agreed to build a smaller cinema in Accrington town centre.

Kingspark, the company which wants to build at Greenbank, is also promising to pay half the cost of a new £600,000 train station alongside their development.

The Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley branch of the pressure group are objecting to the Greenbank plan on four separate grounds.

Friends of the Earth say the site will only be accessible to car users while public transport to the site will be slow and inconvenient.

They also argue other facilities and complexes could be forced out of business by any new developments.

And town centres in East Lancashire would suffer and businesses forced to close if either development goes ahead. Jeff Culshaw, a spokesman for the group said: "Blackburn has already passed the scheme but we hope wiser counsel will prevail in Hyndburn.

"This scheme and the even bigger one now threatened are classic examples of unsustainable development.

"They will cause big traffic increases, undermine town centre competition and discriminate against people without cars.

"These proposals fail on all counts and are also unlikely to deliver a net jobs benefit to the area, whatever the developers promise."

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