LANCASHIRE League chairman Mike Bibby says the league still wants to expand - despite admitting to being 'very disappointed' at clubs rejecting proposals on the table earlier this week.

The league's expansion committee had put the names of 10 clubs, eight from the Northern League and two from the Ribblesdale League, to their existing 14 members two weeks ago.

But on Wednesday night the required majority to press ahead with those plans was not secured in a vote, with six clubs voting against due to concerns about travelling to Fylde Coast sides such as Blackpool, St Annes and Fleetwood to fulfill fixtures.

The structure recommended by the expansion committee had been agreed with the Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB) after months of negotiations to agree a league shake-up that would benefit the entire county.

But now the 14 Lancashire League clubs have been sent back to discuss with their own committees how they want to proceed.

"They all agreed initially that they want expansion, but they're now saying it's with clubs they wish to travel to, in other words it's purely geographical logistics," said Bibby.

"It may be that they decide to try and attempt to take fewer than the 10 clubs.

"For six of the clubs it's too far in one way or another. One would be happy to go for first XI cricket but not second XI cricket."

Bibby admitted he was disappointed to see the recommendations rejected, with 11 of the 14 clubs needing to be in favour to proceed, after a protracted process to reach this stage.

"It's all very disappointing. I was expecting it to be very close but in the interests of league cricket in the county I thought they would probably see it through," he said.

"At the moment it's up to the clubs to come back and tell us what they want to do.

"Who knows what the response of the LCB will be. What we were proposing, and agreed verbally, was being backed by the LCB, they were happy with what we were trying to do.

"We haven't discussed the possibility of moving forward with fewer clubs with the LCB because that isn't on the table from our clubs at the moment.

"The LCB may yet try and force our league into something they don't want to do."

When the league first announced plans to expand they set their sights on a new structure being in place for 2017.

But with any teams moving from the Northern League or Ribblesdale League required to make their intentions clear to their existing league this summer, time is now running out on that schedule.

"We've got until June 30 to get it done for 2017," said Bibby. "If we were forming a new league or a restructured league in 2017, anybody wanting to join has to give their resignation to their current league by June 30.

"We have a couple of months but whether that happens I just can't say.

"The expansion committee have run out of ideas at the moment, whatever we seem to put forward gets rejected, other than the clubs do want expansion, that's a certainty. It's just agreeing what form that takes and what clubs are involved."