PENDLE'S District Youth Council has hit back at claims that a proposed information centre for youngsters in the area will be used as a drop-in for people with drug or alcohol problems.

Earlier this year disgruntled traders in Nelson's Scotland Road opposed the project and gathered more than 1,000 signatures in a campaign to bring shoppers, discouraged by empty units, back to the area.

The shopkeepers, many of who have been there for more than 20 years, are worried that Nelson and particularly Scotland Road is on a downward spiral and their businesses are suffering.

At least six shops on the street now stand empty and several of the remaining traders have put petitions in their shops.

These show the opposition to a proposed drop-in centre for the interfaith group Building Bridges, at number 20 Scotland Road, as well as the Lancashire County Council's What Now youth information centre which has been given approval for the former Eastwood's shop.

But in an open letter addressed to the residents of Pendle, the District Youth Council, Lancashire Youth Councillors and the United Kingdom Youth Parliament insisted that the centre was nothing to be concerned about.

The letter states: "The information shop is for all the young people of Pendle and will not be a drugs or alcoholics drop-in centre.

"This kind of shop has been very successful in other places and will bring most of Pendle's 14,000 young people through its doors at one time or another.

"It will give them a whole range of options from choosing a career, looking for a university and checking the internet to look for products to buy in the shops around Nelson.

"The young people of Pendle need the shop and its services so they can access the information all in one place."

In response to concern about the What Now centre, County Councillor Alan Whittaker, cabinet member for education and cultural services, said: "The What Now service is designed to offer sound advice to young people throughout Lancashire.

"The centres are a real credit to the towns where they are based and recognised locally for the positive contribution they make. I am certain that people familiar with the work of the What Now teams will welcome this new centre."