DON'T drop the Anchor!

That's the plea from a village pub's regulars who fear their beloved boozer is about to be bulldozed.

The popular Blue Anchor, Towngate, Eccleston, could soon disappear to make way for new detached and terraced houses on its four-acre site.

Chorley Borough Council's planning department has received an application for the proposed development.

But angry drinkers, supported by local residents, have launched a campaign to try and save the pub.

Furious Sheila Daker, of Blue Anchor Cottages, stormed: "The Blue Anchor is the only family pub in the village.

"This pub has done its fair share of fund-raising in the past for leukaemia. It's absolutely criminal."

Her feelings are shared by regular Andre Falloon, a member of the pub's boules club, who added: "I am shattered to hear of the application. This pub is a good meeting place. It will destroy us."

Eccleston ward councillor Thomas Titherington, a member of the council's planning committee, said: "I share the feelings of the villagers. There is a strong opinion among people that the village does not need more houses. It is a popular pub and local people are dismayed."

But he added: "People in the area know the planning application has been coming."

Council chiefs received the application last Friday and are due to discuss the proposals at a July planning meeting.

Mayor of Chorley, Alan Whittaker, another Eccleston ward councillor, said he was unhappy about the application, understood to have come from the Pub Estate Company.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.