SHOPKEEPERS have hit out at the council for a delay over the development of a shopping area and cinema in Blackburn town centre.

Stephen Furnell, owner of Furniture shop Bridgeside Stores, said in the last three and a half years they have received little information about the scheme planned by Peel Developments.

The development of the land forms part of Blackburn with Darwen Council's regeneration plans for the town centre. Phase one will see Matalan and Staples stores built on the land, and it is hoped this will be followed by a leisure park including a multiplex cinema, pubs and restaurants.

The plans for the scheme have been passed by Blackburn with Darwen Council, and have now gone to the Government Office for the North West for final approval.

But shopkeepers based on Park Road, which will be the front of the new development, say the time it has taken to bring the development to fruition has damaged their businesses and they still don't know if it will go ahead. Stephen Furnell said: "Peel have bought the old steel works at the back of our shops and put hoarding boards all round, and now there is nowhere for people to park." He said the site of the demolished factory was also full of rats that had nowhere to hide.

Mr Furnell added: "My business has been disrupted something shocking over the last six months, and it's not just me that is feeling it. He said other traders on Park Road were feeling the effect of the uncertainty and lengthy period waiting for development to start.

He added: "Phase one has got to be better than nothing on the land." Councillor Ashley Whalley said he could understand the shopkeepers' frustrations but said the speed of the development's progress was a matter for Peel Developments.

He said: "They are the substantial land holders in that area. The council is also a landholder and has agreed all along to that it would sell its land to Peel given the appropriate development, and that motion has now gone through council and the sale is virtually finalised." He added: "I understand that Peel is now progressing this development as quickly as is now possible and evidence of that can be seen by the demolition of premises behind the shops.

"The council has now powers to speed up the development as this is entirely a private matter."

He said the council also wished to see the development completed as quickly as possible.

Nobody from Peel would comment.