TOWN Council bosses have moved the Darwen Tower mould to a secret location to ‘safeguard the precept payers investment.’

The unanimous decision was made during a private session of the Town Council meeting last Tuesday.

Deputy Chairman of Darwen Town Council, Cllr Kevin Connor said: “We want to make sure that no models of the tower can be made without the council's permission.

“The mould for the tower is now being stored elsewhere.

“It was expensive to make and it’s quite a complex thing because it comes in several bits.

“For us to store it would be difficult and we did not want to take the risk.

“The precept payers paid for that mould and we have duty to protect that investment.”

This comes after the Friends of Darwen Tower sold a number of models of the tower in September which had been made from the mould.

Members of Darwen Town Council said they owned the rights to the design because they had commissioned the casts used for the models.

Following the row, the community group approached the council about using the profits from the previous batch of models to have more made.

Chairman of the Friends of Darwen Tower Harold Heys said: “We had written to them suggested we made a few more models for Christmas as there is a tremendous demand.

“They would have been paid for by the modest profits from the recent sale.

“But, according to the Part 2 minute, Darwen Town Council have decided that no other casts can be made without their permission.

“We have never had any correspondence from them about the models. We have now lost interest.”

Cllr Conor said: “We understand that when the models were sold they were done so with the best of intentions.

“We are going to have to make sure if we do sell models, it is done properly."