A BUSINESSMAN fears he could lose his redundancy cash and his home if council bosses shut down his dream coffee shop.

Ian Finch will tonight appeal to planning councillors to ignore their officers' advice and allow his business, a franchise of coffee shop firm Puccino's, to continue trading in Blackburn town centre.

Mr Finch opened last month after spending tens of thousands of pounds, including his redundancy pay from Rolls-Royce, Barnoldswick, on buying a franchise for Puccino's, which has more than 70 other outlets.

He said he did not think he needed planning permission because he was told by Epsom-based Puccino's that all of their other venues operated out of buildings with A1 retail planning permission, which the building already had.

But planners in Blackburn say they interpret all food-related businesses as A3 buildings.

And because Mr Finch's new deli is in King William Street, which planners want to be used for only shops in the future, they are asking councillors for permission to shut him down.

In a report to tonight's planning and highways committee, officers state that the borough's local plan insists that no more non-retail businesses should be allowed on to King William Street.

It says there is already a danger of them outnumbering shops and wrecking the vitality of the area.

Mr Finch, who lives in Barrowford worked at Rolls-Royce for 13 years before being made redundant.

He said: "I think my business is having the opposite effect.

"It is an improvement, giving people something Blackburn hasn't got at the moment.

"I have moved into an empty shop and created something which is attracting visitors, not scaring them away."

"The council only said when I opened that they thought I needed A3 so I have applied for that."

Andrew Sanders from Puccino's in Epsom added: "Councils across the country love the concept of Puccino's. It adds a new dimension.

"We have not had problems running off A1 premises in other parts of the country, it is just the way the council is interpreting the rules.

"They seem to want their cafes in one part of town and the shops elsewhere. That doesn't work. People will not walk from one place to another like that."

A similar argument erupted last year when the Halifax applied to take over the old Burton's shop.

That project was passed only when many of the councillors who planned to vote against the project were banned from voting because they had bank accounts with the former building society.