A COUNCIL will have to pay back a £900,000 government grant after abandoning the second phase of a multi-million pound town centre regeneration it has emerged.
Rossendale Borough is scrapping the £5.4m remainder of Rawtenstall's Spinning Point scheme.
Welcoming the U-turn Conservative councillors warned that the cost of developing and then abandoning the scheme to council tax payers could reach £2m.
Rossendale Council's Labour leader Cllr Alyson Barnes said: "It will be nothing like £2m.
"We will have to pay the back the £900,000 Growth Deal grant, but that was government money for the project in the first place.
"It will cost around £200,000 to redo the public square where the Valley Centre was to make it in keeping with the new bus station area.
"There are the costs related to planning and project development which will be between £300,000 and £400,000. We looked, we listened and we changed our minds."
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