THE future of more than four acres of land in Earby will not be decided for another month.

Prime Minister Tony Blair even got involved in the debate over land at Bawhead Road following a question from Pendle MP Gordon Prentice in the House of Commons. But a clerical error meant the issue had to be withdrawn from last night's meeting of Pendle Borough Council's executive committee.

The sale of 4.3 acres of land off Bawhead Road, which has planning permission for 50 houses, and the trade of 1,004 square metres of land for a strip of land owned by the Holiday Cottage Group, have been advertised in the press. But the council has not given the public long enough to raise objections.

Executive director for community involvement, Philip Mousdale, said: "Because the land the council is intending to dispose of is designated open space, it is legally necessary to give public notice. Notice was given last Friday and runs until March 4, so it is quite wrong for the executive to attempt to come to a decision tonight on this."

Despite the issue being withdrawn from the agenda, members of the public still took the opportunity of asking Pendle's top councillors about the land.

Alison Laycock, of Stoney Bank Road, Earby, said: "How can it be that Bawhead is advertised for sale despite being removed as development land from the local plan?

"There's a lot of strong feeling about this in Earby. People don't want the land developed. Surely it would be better concentrating on regeneration and leave our open spaces alone."

Council leader Alan Davies replied that the sale of the land was needed to fund the authority's spending plans.

Coun Davies said: "On Monday the council sorted out a budget which includes an extra £300,000 for area committees, it will pay for the CCTV system shortly being introduced in the West Craven area. We need to keep on selling assets.

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The land at Bawhead Road will come before the executive committee on March 23.

Earlier this week, Pendle MP Mr Prentice told Tony Blair that Pendle Liberal Democrats were selling off greenfield sites for development when there were plenty of brownfield sites in the borough that could be built on.

He asked Mr Blair if that wasn't another example of the Liberal Democrats "talking green and acting dirty".