Leader of Pendle Borough Council Cllr Mohammed Iqbal has expressed deep dissatisfaction at the Tory government failure to hand over the promised £25 million pounds announced 2 months ago.

Cllr iqbal said, “as a council we have received the prospectus earlier this week and, in what appears to be of no surprise from this government, we are being asked to prepare a business case and jump through more hoops to have a chance of any funding for Nelson. The government have yet again tried to bribe Pendle residents by the false promise of funding.

I would demand on behalf of local people that our money is handed over instead of trying to create a headline and then 2 months later keep local people dangling it’s not acceptable!.

They already have rejected what I believe were excellent bids for Colne and Barnoldswick, will Nelson also be let down?”