LEISURE chiefs from East Lancashire's six boroughs have driven a Lottery boss on a guided tour from Blackburn to Colne, in a bid to stop the region being overlooked for sporting cash handouts.

The move followed a series of multi-million pound bids to improve outdated sports facilities in East Lancashire being turned down over the last 18 months. These include:

A £3million centre of sporting excellence in Clitheroe, linking a leisure centre, swimming pool and tennis centre, which was described by the Lottery Board as "not strategically important."

A £5.7million Sports Lottery bid to upgrade the cash-strapped William Thompson Recreation Centre in Burnley.

A £4million Sports Lottery scheme to revamp athletics facilities at Wilson's playing fields, Clayton-le-Moors.

A £1.5million scheme to build a combined cricket and tennis club in Rossendale, discussed with the Lottery Board for three years.

The rejections have caused frustration for council chiefs in Hyndburn, Blackburn, Rossendale, Burnley, Pendle and the Ribble Valley, who felt the region was being ignored in favour of city areas like Manchester and Merseyside.

In the latest move by East Lancashire councils to lobby Lottery bosses, representatives from each borough teamed up to take Sports Lottery Fund chief executive Derek Casey on a tour of East Lancashire, to show him the needs of the area, which they believe match those of a major city. At a meeting of Hyndburn policy and resources committe, council chief executive Mike Chambers, said: "We drove Mr Casey from Blackburn to Colne and he didn't notice many green fields along the route.

"He saw people in their communities and we reminded him that half a million people live in East Lancashire. Then we showed him figures about how poor the health of people in our borough is."

Mr Chambers said he believed that lottery chiefs knew little about East Lancashire and they could not understand why so many lottery bids had come from the area.

He said that Mr Casey, together with Sports Lottery regional director Philip Sheldon, who accompanied him, had gone away realising that East Lancashire had equal needs to those of many cities.

Mr Chambers, also a member of the East Lancashire Partnership executive group, said he was encouraged by the way the six boroughs had worked together without trying to fight each other for cash.

He added: "Representing a population of 500,000, the East Lancashire Partnership gives greater leverage in negotiating with outside agencies to get a better deal for people in our area."

Council chiefs in the Ribble Valley wrote to government ministers last year demanding an explanation after lottery chiefs kicked out a £3 million scheme to build a centre of sporting excellence in Clitheroe.

Leisure chiefs from Hyndburn recently went to London to lobby lottery bosses for more sporting cash. They were upset to hear that a £4million scheme to revamp athletics facilities in Clayton-le-Moors had been thrown out. That bid has now been re-submitted.

A spokesman for the Sports Lottery Fund said: "We are always willing to listen to our partner organisations.

"We were happy to visit East Lancashire and look in detail at the issues surrounding the area."

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