A NEW home may have to be found for an estimated 250,000 fish if the East Lancashire Paper Mill Angling Club loses its lodges.

As reported in last week's Bury Times a mystery bidder is negotiating to buy and redevelop the site of the former mill.

The current owner, D.S. Smith, has given assurances that it will make sure any new owners of the land would retain "some kind of fishing facility", but that would also mean all five of the existing lodges would not survive.

Angling club secretary Ronnie Massey (54) said: "It's like living on Death Row. We just don't know what is going to happen. We have got a licence to fish there until December, but even if D. S. Smith remain the owners until then, they can still change this agreement with two months notice."

The club was founded in 1945 and has 375 members, but Mr Massey said he dare not allow membership to increase until the club knows its future.

Bury Council held a meeting in 2001, shortly after the mill closed. The council came up with its own ideal vision under Bury's unitary development plan as to how it would like the land to be used. This included mixed industrial and housing use with leisure/recreational facilities.

D.S. Smith broadly agreed with that and only last week the company's group property manager, Stephen Cook, said any developer who bought the land would have to share that ethos.

But even in the best case scenario, the angling club would lose one of its lodges.

"We could handle that if an alternative lodge was found as a replacement, but the problem is the council don't know what the prospective new owners would want to do with the site. We can't plan for the future if we don't know what is going to happen," said Mr Massey.

He added: "Transferring the fish or selling them would be a big task. We would have to organise netting parties and get a specialist in. As far as the fish are concerned the only safe time to do something like that would be between May and September."

When the mill was still operative it allowed the club to fish the lodges for free. But when D.S. Smith bought the site, the club was charged annual fees: £800 the first year and £216 the second. Before the fees were introduced, the money the club made from membership was used to buy fish to keep the lodges well stocked.

Mr Massey said: "We are a very lively and well-used club. Our members include ladies, 60 junior anglers, 40 disabled people and 75 pensioners. So you can see just how broad the appeal is. People think angling is a solitary pastime but we have a great deal of camaraderie, with social outings and regular meetings."

The ELPM cricket club, bowling club and recreation club are also eagerly waiting to find out what plans there are for the site as they are equally concerned about their futures.