RESIDENTS fear their town centre could become a derelict haven for vandals if plans for a rival shopping centre are approved.

As part of the Tees Valley Joint Strategy Plan, the area's development blueprint for the next 16 years, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has proposed a new district town centre in the Trunk Road, Eston.

Consultants brought in to look at the plan have given it their support.

But residents and traders say that it will destroy the community they have fought hard to build.

Ann Higgins, chairman of the Eston Residents' Association, said: "We've been fighting for six years to turn Eston around, and improvements are on the go. Nothing must detract from that."

Among planned developments is an Aldi store for the shopping precinct. But another supermarket is included in the new town centre scheme, as well as shops and as many as 560 houses.

Brian Hunter, of Alan Hunter Chemist Ltd, in Eston High Street, said yesterday: "It will draw all the shoppers away from the existing shops and we will end up with a derelict town centre.

"We have enough problems now with drunkenness and vandalism, and it's only going to get worse if the shops close. It's going to be a similar situation to Bolckow Road, in Grangetown."

The town's traders have drafted a petition against the plan, bearing 800 signatures. Mr Hunter said: "We don't know what the final plan will be yet, but it's easier to get things stopped now than allow them to go any further."

George Dunning, Redcar and Cleveland council's lead member for regeneration, said: "It will be something different from what's in Eston, and I think it will have a positive effect.

"Aldi hasn't been put off and I think local people should take a more positive view. We don't want to make Eston a ghost town."

The next stage of consultation will be a meeting at which an independent panel will discuss the plans, at the Thistle Hotel, in Fry Street, Middlesbrough, on Thursday, April 5, from 2pm to 4.45pm.

It is open to the public