DEVELOPMENT is set to begin at a former nightclub, after a clamping firm gave motorists a week to clear out of its car park.

The car park at Millennium nightclub, Cicely Lane, Blackburn, has become popular with office workers in the town centre, but it will soon be closed off to the public, and used for contractors preparing to demolish the deserted nightspot, possibly to create a new Lidl supermarket.

Clampers will be operating from Saturday, March 27, after warning signs were put in place at the weekend.

A spokesman for The Wheel Clamping Company, a national firm based in Preston, said: "From the time the signs were erected, which was Saturday at 10am, we are giving people a week's grace before wheel clamping takes place so that anybody that parks there on a regular basis for work has got a week to be able to find an alternative place to park.

"We weren't just putting the signs up and clamping people on Monday morning!"

The former nightclub, which had a number of redevelopments and names between 1989 and 1999, was owned by Northern Leisure until it was sold to supermarket chain Lidl.

But since the popular venue, also known as Manhattan Heights, Club Euro and Northern Lights, closed, it has been the target of arson attacks.

A planning application was submitted for the land by Lidl in September 2000, but today the firm would not comment on whether they still own the land. But The Wheel Clamping Company, who have been hired to patrol the land, said any development would be starting soon.

A spokesman said: "They have just said they would like the car park closed so they can get the contractors in there. I think they are going to be blocking it off."

Raymond Goldstone, president of the Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade, said: "It's a good idea if it's going to be cleaned up and tidied.

"It's an eyesore. It's been an eyesore for a long while."