THE former Co-op Pioneer supermarket site will be put on the market next month in the hope that a developer will come forward with plans for a shopping complex.

Burnley Council's executive committee this week approved plans to use a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to buy land surrounding the Curzon Street site so the whole area can be sold to the right bidder.

A bid to use the site to build a job centre failed last year after the council argued that the site should be kept for a retail development, including a flagship department store, such as Debenhams.

The Co-op store, which closed in January 2001 with a loss of about 60 jobs, has already been demolished and the council will be opening it as a temporary pay and display car park this month.

A grant of £1.8m from the North West Development Agency enabled the council to acquire the leasehold earlier this year, which included enough to buy the former Pilkington's Pills factory site.

The factory was bulldozed some years ago and the land is currently overgrown and derelict.

The council found that there were three separate parties to deal with for them to acquire the whole site, one of which is untraceable and it is for this reason that a CPO was needed.

Speaking after the executive committee meeting, Mike Birdsall, property consultancy manager for the council, said; "We are looking for a retail development, including a department store, on the former Co-op site, but a developer would not want to move in with a scruffy site left derelict on the corner next to the development. The CPO will ensure that we acquire all the interests necessary to facilitate a new retail development for the town."

Mr Birdsall added: "There has been a lot of talk about Debenhams coming to the town, but it would be up to the developer to say which stores it would be bringing in. But we would hope for stores of the same calibre as Debenhams were included."