EXCLUSIVE
ACCRINGTON'S stagnant nightlife is set to get a massive boost if a plan to build a £500,000 club gets the go-ahead.
The new nightspot is the brainchild of businessmen Mohammed Mukhtar and Thair Iqbal, who are hoping to convert the Almost Christmas shop on Church Street and the warehouse behind it.
They have bought the store, which sells festive decorations, for £200,000 and are hoping to revamp the interior once the current owner has moved out later this year.
The plans were announced amid fears that Accrington was losing night-time revellers to neighbouring towns.
The town currently has only one nightclub, Lar-de-dars on Eagle Street, since Opium was gutted in a blaze last December.
Ironically, its owner Mick Cookson has been called in to design the new club which will include several water features.
Mr Cookson said this week that he was still hopeful of re-opening Opium.
If planning permission is granted, the new club, provisionally named Industry, could be up and running by next April.
Mr Iqbal, 29, said: "I have worked as a doorman in Accrington town centre for 10 years now and the nightlife has deteriorated to the stage where I would call it a ghost town.
"People are always saying there is nowhere to go. We both live in Accrington and we would like to put something back into the town.
"We got the idea while we were on holiday in Spain. There are a lot of clubs out there where people have fun and we thought we would like to give the town a real boost."
Mr Mukhtar, 29, said: "There is nowhere around here that caters for a more adult audience of people from 20 upwards and we would like to provide something for them."
