EAST Lancashire was proud last year to welcome two new university centres.

The multi-million pound facilities were heralded as the catalyst to truly kick-start the area’s regeneration.

But today, before they have even completed their first full year, that aim has taken a battering.

The government has told Blackburn College and the University of Central Lancashire, which runs the Burnley campus, that it will not be allowed to grow student numbers after next year.

This means around 1,600 planned places will be lost by 2014, and the centres will not run at their intended capacity.

The vice-chancellor of UCLAN has branded the policy 'crazy'. Burnley Council’s leader was equally blunt, saying the new centres had been ‘strangled at birth’.

But the most pertinent comments came from Mike Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce.

He outlined the universities’ importance, citing studies which have shown there are 15,000 fewer graduates working in East Lancashire compared to other similar-sized areas.

Mr Damms said it was a nonsense to build such big, expensive centres and not populate them with students.

And it is hard to disagree. While the Government is clearly wrestling with difficult funding cut decisions at present, surely the axe must fall elsewhere.