A £4 MILLION bid for cash to regenerate two deprived areas of Colne has been turned down.

Officials from the Government Office for the North West rejected the bid, which would have been invested into the Vivary Bridge and Waterside wards.

The Waterbridge Initiative was put forward by Pendle Borough Council with support from Pendle Partnership and was developed to tackle health, income, employment and child poverty problems in Colne's needy areas.

Identified as an eligible area, Pendle was one of 72 local authorities to put together a bid for cash from the Government's £45million Neighbourhood Pathfinder Fund, but only 20 were successful.

Brian Astin, Pendle Council's corporate policy manager, who co-ordinated the bid, said: "The announcement came as a big disappointment and we immediately contacted GONW to ask for reasons why the bid was rejected.

"We hope that the feedback that we receive in their response will help us to develop a stronger bid for the next round of Neighbourhood Pathfinders, which will be announced later in the year.

"We will also review whether we can continue our ideas using other money.

"With only 20 being chosen out of 72 local authorities the odds were stacked against everyone, but we had been quite clear about that when talking to the community."

Waterside ward councillor Edwina Sargeant, was disappointed the bid had failed. She said: "It is a big loss for us because we really could have done with it. It's a shame with it being quite a decent amount.

"I don't know where our bid went wrong and I'm sorry we've lost it but I hope we can now learn a lesson from it and next time do it right. "I think the money would have done a lot of good."

Despite the setback, Mr Astin was optimistic about the future of Pendle. He said: "Tremendous steps have already been taken in the regeneration of Pendle and over the past six years the council and Pendle Partnership have been successful in securing more than £30million of funding from successful bids for Government and European cash."

"As part of this partnership of local organisations, businesses and voluntary and community groups we are committed to the future regeneration of Pendle and will continue to work hard to bid for further cash to improve the quality of life for local people."

The cash would have been used to appoint neighbourhood managers and to plan action to improve local services while ensuring that residents had an equal say in the decisions made.