A MAJOR expansion scheme at an East Lancashire tourist attraction has been cut back to overcome a planning hurdle and allow work to go ahead on repairing and renovating its historic "home".

Trustees of Earby Lead Mines Museum withdrew plans for a side extension to its base at the old grammar school, after complaints by heritage groups.

The museum is in a 17th Century Grade II* listed building, among the top four per cent of its type in the country.

Pendle councillors gave permission to the revised scheme, which allows work on renovating the crumbling building in School Lane to go ahead.

The renovation work, which is expected to take up to six months and will include taking the roof off and repairing cracks in the walls, is due to start next year in preparation for a grand re-opening early in the year 2000.

Alex Wright, a consultant helping the trustees, said: "We are still in discussions over the details of the extension but rather than hold anything up we decided to take the extension out of the planning application and put the building in order.

"Quite a lot of work needs doing because the walls are beginning to crack and the roof is in a reasonably sad state. We're hoping to carry out the renovations over the winter months when the museum is closed anyway."

In the meantime the trustees and their advisers are working with Pendle Council and various heritage groups, including English Heritage, to iron out the difficulties regarding the proposed extension which will house an entrance lobby, shop and a seminar room.

"In the next five years we would like to see the extension agreed and built and I am confident we can do that," added Mr Wright.

The trustees have applied for lottery cash to help fund the ambitious expansion project at the museum which looks at the history of mining in the Yorkshire Dales.

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