IT is apparent for all to see that the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership is in crisis.

Ministers have lost confidence in it’s flagship ‘skills city project’.

The enterprise zone was billed as the wonder plan that would create 6,000 hi-tech jobs across the county and rejuvenate the economy.

Now not one but two ministers have condemned the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership as the worst in the country, for failing to meet any of its aims.

Three years have gone by and very little has happened.

Not a single building has gone up. Not a single firm has been recruited. Nor has a single job been created.

For Jack Straw to say he has rarely seen such a strongly-worded ministerial letter is testament to the crisis.

Especially as some of the criticism is levelled at Labour Party colleagues in County Hall, Preston.

However, despite the criticism, Enterprise Partnership chairman Edwin Booth and Lancashire County Council claim everything is on track.

The leaders need to wake up and pay attention.

What needs to happen now is those at the top should be held to account and urgent action taken to rectify the situation by putting Lancashire on the map.