The group responsible for restoring the area, the Whitefield Regeneration Partnership, says the masterplan needs to be amended "in the light of changing circumstances".

And it says Pendle Council should no longer support developers R.gen as the preferred developer for Phase 1 area.

National regeneration agency English Partnership has said it is unable to give the go-ahead to "gap funding" to enable the R.gen scheme to go ahead.

But regeneration partnership chairman Lord Shutt is confident things will happen – and perhaps even sooner than they would have done under the R.gen project.

The initial plan for the area, between Manchester Road and the canal and from Stanley Street to Macleod Street, was to demolish the terraces and build new homes but Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ruled out wholesale demolition.



In 2006, a team including Manchester developer R.gen won a contest to design Phase 1 restoration. The idea was to bring more than 100 empty homes back to use through imaginative conversion and restoration, plus creating new homes, green space and a major public square.

R.gen was selected as "preferred developer" by Pendle Council and given outline planning permission. But at a Press briefing this week, Lord Shutt said things had changed and explained: "We are clearly in a very different economic situation as far as housing is concerned."

The prospect of a new school being built in Whitefield also had an influence, he said, adding: "I don't believe the partnership's 36 meetings have been wasted. I think a lot has been learned and it will help going forward. It's a disappointment but an opportunity to regroup."

Lancashire County Council is expected to make a decision about the school by the end of October.

Counb. Tony Greaves said the decision by English Partnership not to back R-gen's need for £35-£40m. funding for the scheme was not a surprise.

Mr David Chilton, for English Partnerships, said his organisation "remained committed to regenerating Whitefield".