IT will be partying as usual at Club XPO, Burnley, tonight despite the company calling in the receivers.

Club owners Paul Taylor and Steve Farkas battled hard to establish the new club in the former Aenon Chapel near Burnley bus station against opposition from local groups.

Their move came because of the proposed redevelopment of the Curzon Street car stack beneath which The Angels night club was situated.

Mr Taylor said the new club was not another Angels but the realisation of his dreams of a purpose-built club and bar, and

Club XPO Bar was officially opened on May 3 last year.

Only two weeks ago, the club made a formal appeal to the local magistrates against a Burnley Council decision and were granted a six-month trial period Public Entertainment Licence allowing Saturday night music and dancing to run through to 4am on Sundays, the first locally allowed 4am licence.

The high costs of converting the former chapel, a listed building, eventually led to the receivers being called in, but a buyer is expected to be found soon. In the meantime the club remains open as usual.

Administrative receiver Tim Hargreaves said: "We are already negotiating with prospective purchasers and hope to have a conclusion fairly quickly.''

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.