FYLDE Borough Council has hit back at a legal challenge from campaigners trying to save part of the town's park from development.

Supporters of Ashton Gardens say they have contacted the Charity Commission and London's Attorney General's Office in a last-ditch attempt to block the council selling part of the Clifton Drive park for a housing development.

Up to 57 flats could be built on the south east corner of the park, on which the run-down former Ashton Institute now stands, SOAG claims.

But despite the campaign group's hope of 'swift and decisive' action from the Attorney General, the council has insisted it will stick to its decision.

SOAG spokesman Fred Moor said the park was given by Lord Ashton to the 'present and future' people of St Annes in 1914 and that the then council pledged the park would 'ever remain as a monument of Lord Ashton's benevolence'.

He said SOAG has obtained advice from 'a much respected barrister' about the possible charitable land status of Ashton Gardens. He added: "The barrister went on to advise that if the council did not accept that the gardens were charity land SOAG should place the facts before the Charity Commission and the office of the Attorney General so that these issues can be determined by the courts."

But a council spokeswoman said the council had not yet been notified of any formal legal challenge, but that it had already taken legal advice and can prove the park is legally its to sell.

The council had 'tried to work' with SOAG for the benefit of the gardens, but the pressure group was now 'obsessing' over the park and could jeopardise lottery funding that could help kick-start regeneration in St Annes, she said.

The spokeswoman was unable to reveal the amount the land had been sold for. But she confirmed the developer already owns properties adjacent to the park and that the sold land - amounting to 0.6 per cent of the total park area - would form only a 'small part' of a larger housing development.

The council will use the money from the sale to bid for 'matched funding' from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £2 million revamp of the park, which the spokeswoman described as 'in dire need' of work.

She added that Ashton Institute will be 'sympathetically dismantled' and, if safe, will be stored with a possible view to being resited within the park.

The council is facing a budget deficit and as such cannot raise the £250,000 any other way, she said, adding: "At the end of the day the council has got to look at the bigger picture."