COUNCILLORS have hit out at the rising costs of a scheme to improve a Pendle town centre.

The landmark £150,000 project to revamp Colne town centre precinct was condemned as ‘a town joke’ and ‘a mess’ after work over-ran by four months.

And additional work on the scheme, which was unveiled in August and runs from the job centre to the Tesco Express store, could cost up to £51,000, it has been revealed. Councillors have agreed to calls for problems with flagstones to be rectif-ied over the next few weeks.

Roger Bucknell, of Lanesh-awbridge Parish Council, who previously branded the scheme, a mess, said he was ‘extremely disappointed’ at the overspend.

He said: “I am unhappy with this. It is extremely disappointing and a let-down for the people of Colne.

“Also the high standard of work we expected has simply not been provided and worse still it took such a long time.

“People are upset that the work is not of an acceptable standard. The flags are cracked and bollards have not been put up properly.

“Vehicles have been mount-ing the pavement and broken the flags. It has been a very long job with a disappointing result.”

Council officials have also pledged that a water feature, supposed to be the centrep-iece of the precinct revamp, will be installed shortly.

Pendle Council said a speci-alist firm had been found to undertake the small-scale project with the matter going to Colne Committee for the final decision.

The extent of the additio-nal work would not be kno-wn until bills for the scheme were received, she added.

The spokesperson said: “The figure is only a forecast overspend not the actual cost.

"All the bills have not come in and until they do we will not know the extent of the overspend.

“We have found someone interested in doing the work for the water feature but we are still in negotiations with them.”