MP GORDON Prentice is demanding that the cash and assets of the wound-up East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council (ELTEC) should be spent in the area.

He is concerned that the legacy of ELTEC will be swallowed up by the new Lancashire Learning and Skills Council based in Preston.

The Pendle Labour backbencher has quizzed work and pensions minister John Healey about where the material assets and financial surpluses left behind by ELTEC will go.

Mr Healey said that some £7,000 of equipment, including computers, had gone to the new county wide LSC and the new Lancashire Business Link.

He added: "The transfer of any cash surpluses will be finalised after ELTEC has completed its statutory accounts for the year ended March 2001 and appointed a liquidator to wind up the company.

"Current estimates suggest that some £1.4 million will be made available to the Lancashire LSC to take forward local initiatives in East Lancashire and a further £1.3 million will go to support individual learning accounts for local people."

Mr Prentice said: "This is reassuring. The assets of ELTEC must be used to benefit East Lancashire. There were real fears that the cash would disappear into a large pot and be used elsewhere."