A ROW has broken out after a promise to install special parking bays to make life easier for elderly residents was broken.

The Labour group and Liberal Democrat groups on Pendle Council have been arguing over who is to blame for the failure of the scheme.

People in sheltered housing in Swinden Hall Road and Regent Street, Nelson, approached councillors at the beginning of last year to ask for parking bays outside their sheltered housing to cut the walk between their cars and their homes.

Council bosses promised install them by October, but the work still has not been finished.

Three bays had been installed in Swinden Hall Road but the council then ran out of money for Regent Street.

The ruling Liberal Democrat group has promised to finish the whole project in the next financial year, which begins in April.

Nelson Committee chairman Coun David Foster said the "firm promise" of parking bays for the bungalows stood.

He said delays had been caused by funding hitches after the council housing stock transfer to a private company, technical problems and "unrealistic promises" by a council officer.

Coun Foster said: "We hope that the rest of the work at Swinden Hall Road will be done before the end of March and that the Regent Street squares, where it is more complicated, will follow in the next financial year. We are working very hard and make no mistake - this work will be done."

But the delay has prompted Labour leader and representative of Bradley ward Coun Mohammad Iqbal to accuse members of the controlling Liberal Democrat group of "withholding cash".