PLANS to permanently light up a landmark are still being considered after New Year blizzards put the freeze on a scheme to illuminate it at the close of the Millennium Year.

Blackburn with Darwen Council said the New Year's Eve "white out" made it too dangerous to go ahead with a project to use spotlights powered by three generators to illuminate Jubilee Tower on the moors above Darwen, for one night only.

And four years after a scheme to permanently light the tower was initially suggested, the estimated £50,000 cost is stalling the project.

The winter weather also put a damp squib on a planned New Year's Eve fireworks display on nearby moorland.

Councillor Ashley Whalley, executive member for regeneration with Blackburn with Darwen Council, said plans to light the tower for the first time in its 103-year history were called off at 1.30pm on New Year's Eve.

"Under the circumstances a decision had to be taken," he said. "It was disappointing but we were quite right to make it.

"It wasn't possible to get the equipment to the tower but even if the route had been passable we could have been left with a member of staff stranded on the moor in quite atrocious conditions and would have been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons."

Coun Whalley said that a decision about the possible future permanent lighting of the tower had still not been taken but discussions are still under way.

He added that a minor structural problem with the tower would have to be corrected and further assessment of the environmental impact the scheme would have on the moorland needed to be carried out before any final decision could be made.

The main hurdle is meeting the estimated £50,000 cost of installing a power supply to the remote tower and the annual running costs.