A CAMPAIGN has been launched to fight plans for another supermarket in Unsworth.

Nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition against proposals to create a mini-market style Co-op in Parr Lane.

A planning application has been submitted to Bury Council for permission to demolish the Dragon pub and build a store. The plan also includes eight residential apartments. But traders, councillors and residents are opposing the plans.

David Lomas, of Lomas News, said: “We already have a Co-op store half a mile in each direction. If this new store goes ahead I, and other small businesses, would be ruined over night. The most worrying thing is that there is no mention of the nearby Unsworth Primary School in the plans, or a traffic report.”

Unsworth ward councillor, Joan Grimshaw, said she was backing Mr Lomas’s campaign “100 per cent”. She said: “I live in the area and I know how hard it is to park even now, it’s horrendous.”

Andrew Broadhurst, managing director of Cobe Consulting, which is developing the site, said: “Some people are concerned it will become a supermarket, but the site isn’t big enough for that.”

A public meeting will be held at Mersey Drive Primary School, off Kennedy Drive, at 7pm on Tuesday.