A BID to get more bobbies on the streets in a crime hotspot has lost out to a project for training circus clowns.

Lancashire police wanted extra cash to tackle crime and social exclusion in Morecambe's West End.

But the request for a slice of £10m of European funding has been knocked back by the Government.

However, plans for a £3 million circus skills centre in Manchester have won the thumbs-up.

Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Geraldine Smith says the way the Government hands out European cash is a mockery.

And Lancaster City Council leader Cllr Ian Barker has called the decision 'scandalous'.

Ms Smith says it is 'incomprehensible' that top rating was given to the circus skills bid while Morecambe's cash plea - which concerns social exclusion, crime prevention and economics - was blocked.

"The money is supposed to encourage business opportunities. The circus centre might help people wanting to set up as a juggler or children's entertainer - but it is more urgent to get police on the streets.

"It beggars belief that the system allows funding bids to be assessed in this way."

The decision was made by the Department of Trade and Industry. It states that European funding should support 'economic and social conversion of areas facing structural difficulties'.

Ms Smith says she would argue that a centre for circus skills would not do that.

She has lodged a series of questions with the Government, asking it to explain the criteria used when handing out cash.

She is urging it to look at how useful a scheme is before allocating funds.

A Government Office spokesman says the Morecambe bid is being reviewed because the application provided by Lancaster City Council was unclear.

But Cllr Ian Barker disagrees.

"We submitted a full application unlike the circus skills bid which was an outline application with a small amount of information on it," he says

"The Government claims the police do not have a facility to manage the money, but they do. They said the project was not of regional significance yet the plan states the police intention is to use the initiative in the rest of Lancashire."