A LEADING Darwen Labour councillor has accused the town’s MP of ‘misleading’ the public over the allocation of a piece of land for 400 new homes.

Jake Berry has launched a petition calling for Bailey’s Field to be removed from the Local Plan, published by the borough council.

The plan is the council’s response to the Government’s house-building plan which ordered Blackburn with Darwen Council to allocate land for 9,400 new homes borough-wide.

Coun Dave Smith said: “In my opinion he is misleading the residents.

“I recently dug out the last district plan, which was published in 1995, and Bailey’s Field has been allocated for housing since then, if not before.

“Once a piece of land has been allocated it is very difficult to de-allocate, and the council has to allocate land for 9,400 homes whether it likes it or not.

“Where else does Mr Berry want these houses to be built?

“The land will most likely never be built on because of all the mineshafts, so it is better that it is allocated over somewhere that would attract developers.”