A FILM company making a movie about a notorious serial killer has received a snub from a South Lakeland author.

Local historian and lay reader Roger Bingham is refusing to allow a book he wrote to be featured in a film about Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

Mr Bingham said the revealation that Sutcliffe was a fan of his book Lost Resort? The Flow and Ebb of Morecambe left him cold.

Coun Bingham, chair of Cumbria County Council and a lay reader at St Peter’s Parish Church, Heversham, was contacted by London-based Praslin Pictures over whether he would allow the book to be used in a film chronicling the life of the mass murderer.

“I’ve done many articles and taken part in television programmes because of the book so I thought it was something like that,” said Coun Bingham.

“But when they said it was a film called Peter concerned with Peter Sutcliffe I said I was not prepared to be associated with it.”

As a young man Sutcliffe used to holiday with his family at Arnside where his uncle kept a caravan on New Barns Caravan Park.

The ashes of his father, John, were scattered in Arnside in June 2004 but Sutcliffe was not allowed to attend the ceremony.

On January 17, 2005, the authorities allowed the multiple murderer to visit the coastal village from Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital and grieve at the site on compassionate grounds.

“His visit to Arnside produced tremendous indignation locally, which I shared,” said Coun Bingham.

“I don’t know why he is a fan of the book. I know he came on holiday to Morecambe Bay when he was younger. It must have lots of memories for him.”

Peter is an independent film exploring Sutcliffe’s life in prison and his mental state.

Much of the film will be shot in London but several significant scenes will be filmed on the pier at Arnside and the Winter Gardens in Morecambe.

A Praslin Pictures spokesman said: “It’s not a gratuitous film about the murders.

"It’s a portrait of his state of mind in prison.

"It is based on his character just after conviction and a lot of it plays out after his sentence.

“It’s about his memories and his mental state.”

Mr Bingham’s book charts the decline and fall of Morecambe and has sold around 6,000 copies.

Coun Bingham said: “I don’t need that sort of publicity for my books.

"I am in public life and I would not wish to have my public position associated with such a person.”