A DECISION not to allow the old Ridgewood School building in Stoneyholme, Burnley, to be used by community groups has been criticised by a county councillor.

Coun Misfar Hassan said that over the past few years he has made represent-ations on behalf of several organisations interested in the building, which was destroyed two weeks ago in a suspected arson attack.

He said groups including Pennine Lancashire Community Farm and Tauheedul Islam, in Blackburn, had looked into the site but were were turned down by Lancashire County Council.

Last week the authority said it had declined requests for community groups wanting to use the building because of issues relating to cost and health and safety.

Coun Hassan said: “For reasons best known to themselves, Lancashire County Council wanted to keep hold of the building. Money from the public purse has been spent on the building, and now it’s looking like it’s been written off completely. Somebody should be held responsible.”

E-mails between Coun Hassan and Phil Jeffrey, estates surveyor for the council, show the then council leader Geoff Driver had decided not to transfer the building to a community group. The e-mail from Mr Jeffrey said: “Geoff Driver considered the applications by community groups to use the above property today and decided that the property was not suitable for community asset transfer.

“We intend now to demolish the buildings as they are health and safety risk. The council’s property regeneration partner is meeting with Burnley planners shortly, but they envisage that housing development on the building footprint is the most suitable use. It is likely therefore that the site will eventually be offered for sale on the market.

“The community groups would be welcome to bid at that stage along with everyone else.”

But Coun Hassan said that he was made to wait a year for this response, and he said that he felt the council’s decision was never properly explained.

He said: “There were a lot of community groups willing to take responsibility for the building and put it to good use, but now the opportunity has been wasted.”

A county council spokesman said: “The approach to use the building was considered in accordance with the proper processes but declined due to the building’s poor state of repair and the potential financial cost to the authority of not recovering the value of the site.”