A SCHEME to provide East Lancashire with a tram system has been axed after five years of planning and £1million of public money was spent on research.

Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council pulled the plug on funding after deciding the plans were too complicated - and unlikely to work because the area was too hilly.

Today critics of the scheme said it had been a waste of money which could have been used to combat congestion through improved roads and bus services.

The East Lancashire Rapid Transit project was first launched in 1999, by East Lancashire Partnership - a multi-agency organisation funded mainly by councils.

It promised trams linking all the towns in the area and vastly improved rail and bus services.

Bosses said a revised scheme would be "ready to roll" by the end of 2001.

Now the councils have begun working on their own transport scheme, focusing on improving bus routes.

Over the last five years, the East Lancashire Partnership has commissioned a number of studies into the rapid transit tram dream, funded by Government transport cash donated to the project by the two councils.

As late as last year, it was still saying the idea was still 'under consideration.'

But today, Coun Andy Kay, in charge of regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "We went to the East Lancashire Partnership in the first place so that all interested bodies could have a say. We wanted to create a sense of ownership for the scheme.

"That, however, meant having to look at everyone's pet ideas, including trams, which a lot of people have talked about since. But studies suggested it was too hilly, and my feeling always has been that that would be the case.

"We are going to work with LCC to draw up schemes and submit a bid for Government money next year, probably for bus lanes to speed up public transport."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "A great deal of work has been done in developing East Lancashire's public transport system and the county council is committed to the continuation of development work."

Dennis Taylor, chief executive of the partnership, said their involvement with the rapid transit scheme was now at an end.

He said: " We believe a lot has been achieved, and although this is a decision we weren't expecting now, we are happy to work with the councils on other projects in the future."

Blackburn Tory councillor Paul McGurty said: "This seems an incredible waste of money. We've had five or six years of spending hundreds of thousands every year on research to establish that trams won't work here because it is too hilly. People have been made promises which can't be kept and that automatically casts doubts on projects in the future."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "It is important the councils now deliver something quickly. To me, taking six years to decide trams won't work seems a very long time."

Hyndburn Labour councillor Graham Jones said: "This is money which could have been spent on improving roads and bus services. The transit scheme has gone from being a full-on Metro scheme to upgrading the current bus timetable. It isn't good at all. A lot of it has just proved to be pie in the sky."