CATHEDRAL bosses may miss out on a £64,000 safety grant, unless the local council refunds cash spent on its aborted Pavilions regeneration scheme.

The grant from English Heritage will go towards a state-of-the-art fire alarm and emergency lighting system throughout the whole of Blackburn Cathedral. But the Cathedral has to find a further £27,000 within six months if it is to take up the grant to buy the £91,000 system.

And bosses said they may only be able to accept the offer if they recoup some of the money they spent on their cancelled Pavilions scheme, or quickly raise some money.

Blackburn with Darwen Council pulled out of a partnership that looked to change the three Pavilion buildings in Church Street, Blackburn, into shops or restaurants.

It is now heading the project itself, but Cathedral chiefs paid out £80,000 for work on architectural, survey and design fees. They said they had been waiting for three weeks for negotiations to resume so they can discover how much they are getting back.

Council chiefs today said they were pleased the Cathedral has been offered the money, but they said it was wrong to link the grant with the negotiations with the council.

Canon Andrew Hindley said: "One of the reasons we are finding ourselves short is that we are still waiting to see how much money we are going to get back from the council over the Pavilions.

"We don't expect to receive it all, but we expect to receive the majority.

"We are looking for money from other sources, like donations, but if we don't get the money from the council or from somewhere else we may have to turn the grant down."

The money will mean the Cathedral will be protected from fires similar to the one that destroyed Peterborough Cathedral 18 months ago.

Canon Hindley said: "At the moment, the Cathedral is only protected by fire alarms that are in the high-risk area of the roof. The money will mean the whole of the Cathedral will be protected and any fire can be stopped before it is allowed to spread.

"Unlike Peterborough's system, ours is more advanced -- it takes samples of air every 20 seconds. But as most vandalism takes place lower down, we are still at risk of losing a substantial amount of the building before it is detected.

"The Cathedral is valued at £15million, but in reality it is irreplaceable."

Blackburn's grant is part of more than £35million from English Heritage to repair some of England's greatest buildings.

Phil Watson, chief executive Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, said: "The council is pleased the Cathedral have been able to access English Heritage money for safety work.

"However, it would be wrong to link this latest grant to the costs of abortive work carried out by the Cathedral and their advisers in relation to the Pavilions.

"The Cathedral were given a period of time to come up with a scheme to redevelop the Pavilions consistent with their prominent commercial position on Church Street. They took this on at their own risk.

"Even though the council extended the time period for them, they were unable to come up with an appropriate scheme. The council is in discussion with the Cathedral to see how their abortive costs can be minimised."