PEOPLE living near a Colne garage are to meet with council chiefs to draw up a battle plan for fighting alleged pollution which they say is making their lives a misery.

Pendle Borough Council is prosecuting Macadams garage, North Valley Road, for re-spraying vehicles without a permit.

Nearby residents claim it is generating unpleasant fumes and they are worried about the effect on their health.

Householders begged Colne councillors to help them on the same day Pendle MP Gordon Prentice raised the issue in the House of Commons.

Wordsworth Road resident Don Ryan told Colne Committee members: "We've spent nine months enduring emissions and not knowing if they are toxic or not.

"The nuisance of the smell is there every day.

"What we want is a clear understanding of where we stand.

"We don't want this to drag on again. It needs to be solved quickly."

Another resident, Sarah Bennett, added: "Who is going to help us?

"My family has been breathing this in for nine months. People have been getting migraines. Nobody is there to stand up for us."

Residents called for a meeting with environmental health officers, planners and legal advisors to thrash out what can be done.

Horsfield Coun Dorothy Lord said: "You must be feeling so out on a limb and very frustrated with all of this.

"We should dedicate some time to these people who are suffering the most.

"I've visited Sarah's house and I could have been standing in her garden with a bottle of nail varnish under my nose. I'm very, very concerned."

Meanwhile Mr Prentice had been told by environment minister Elliott Morley that Pendle Council had 'become entangled in a complex legal situation of double jeopardy' and should seek an injunction under the Pollution Prevention Control Regulations.

His reply angered council leader and Boulsworth ward councillor Alan Davies.

He said: "It's the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that stopped us using the pollution prevention control legislation.

"They are the ones that lost us seven or eight months by saying the previous legislation no longer applied.

"I find it appalling to have fingers pointed in that particular fashion."

Residents and council representatives will meet during the next week and a court case is expected in March.