A CONTROVERSIAL new ride looked set to get rolling this week as bosses at Camelot tried to stop the decline in visitors.

The theme park wants to replace its existing 12-year-old Tower of Terror Ride with a new thriller called Vertigo this winter.

Visitors to the Prime Resorts' attraction dropped from 450,000 in 1997 to 350,000 last year. Camelot chiefs hope the new feature -- a rollercoaster ride in which a train is lifted 40m high before dropping through a series of loops to 21m -- will boost visitor numbers.

However there are objections from a number of sources.

Residents in Highgrove Avenue complain the proposal will spoil the rural surroundings, cause noise nuisance and traffic congestion, and distract drivers on the adjacent M6.

Charnock Richard Parish Council has also objected, claiming the site is already over-used, causing drainage, noise and traffic problems. And it claims the new ride would be too high and unsightly, and generate noise and traffic.

Chorley Borough Council's development control committee discussed the proposal on Tuesday when an officer's report recommended the plan go ahead.

The committee was told that Prime Resorts were willing to provide a mini roundabout at the A49-Mill Lane junction by the end of June 2001 to ease traffic congestion. Councillors were also told that the new ride would be quieter than the existing one, with the same number of people --a maximum of 800 per hour; and that the upper part of Vertigo would be visible form the M6 to southbound drivers.

Concern was expressed in the report for residents of Highgrove Avenue and Yewlands Avenue, but the report concluded: "The height is such that the development would be more visually apparent than existing structures and this may also heighten awareness of noise from this site. These are negative factors to be balanced against the general appropriateness of ongoing investment at this well established theme park site." TOWER Of Terror: could be replaced by Vertigo