A SCHEME to build 170 new homes in Accrington has been scrapped after regeneration funding cuts.

The axing of the scheme off Blackburn Road has been described as a major blow to the town.

Now a community park will be created on the site of demolished homes cleared for the scheme after bosses said they had been left with an eyesore wasteland.

The new homes would have been built in the area behind the new health centre in Blackburn Road as part of the Project Phoenix project for West Accrington.

Overall 375 new homes were due to be built in the £40million scheme over several years.

Work had already begun on the first 82 properties, with the remainder intended to be built over the next six to 10 years.

But, as reported in the Lancashire Telegraph, £5million has been slashed from East Lancashire's £48million Elevate budget for this financial year.

Council chiefs across the area are looking at where they can make savings, and the 170 Accrington properties, which would have been available as 'affordable homes', are where Hyndburn bosses have decided to wield the axe.

There are concerns that the scheme could face further savage cuts in the years to come, despite the regeneration project being only half way into a 15-year plan.

Critics fear the regeneration of East Lancashire, which has 21,000 homes rated unfit by the Government, will be left devastated by the feared cuts.

And in Hyndburn council chiefs are already making the contingency plans.

Public gardens with landscaping, seating, flagpoles, boulders and trees as well as a wildflower meadow will be built Leyland Street, Blackburn Road, Barlow Street and Grimshaw Street.

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said it was vital to do something positive with the land in the short term.

They hope to eventually get the scheme back on track.

Coun Britcliffe said: “It is a blow that the housing projects will now not take place but we could not leave the land as it is.

"Currently it looks like a derelict wasteland.

"The park project is a great move for not only the people that live in that area but everyone in Accrington because the Blackburn Road area is somewhere that so many people use every day.

“This project will improve it and make the area more attractive before hopefully the housing project can be resurrected in the future.

“I am sure people will enjoy this garden when it is completed.”

The cash will come from the council’s housing budget and work is expected to start at the site shortly.