COUNTY Council bosses say that a blaze, which ripped through an old school building, will not halt plans to sell off the £4million site.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said that the fire, in three classrooms at Moorhead High School's former Queen's Road West building in Accrington caused only minor damage to the structure.

But he said the building was being assessed by Health and Safety inspectors to ascertain its structural safety.

He also said County Hall was considering a range of options, including selling it to property developers for housing, or letting St Christopher's CE High School buy it for an A-Level building.

Children are believed to have started the blaze, at 9pm on Saturday.

It took firefighters two hours to bring the fire under control.

Last September, Accrington and Rossendale College axed its A-Level courses due to a lack of demand, leaving Hyndburn without any of the courses.

A government study investigating the feasibility of restoring A-Levels to the borough is currently being carried out, with the results due at the end of the month. Governors at St Christopher's are considering starting A-Level courses if the Government gives the green light.

The LCC spokesman said: "We are currently reviewing security arrangements at the site to ensure a similar incident doesn't take place again.

"Discussions decisions are still taking place to decide on a future use for the building. This could include housing or letting St Christopher's buy it.

"The damage that has been caused is quite minor in terms of structure, but we are looking at the building at the moment to make sure of that for health and safety reasons."

A fire service spokesman said an arson attack by children was the suspected cause of the blaze and a number of names of those seen in the vicinity had been passed on to the police and fire investigations teams.