EAST Lancashire MPs have won a last-ditch meeting with a government minister in a bid to rescue millions of pounds of job-creating cash aid.

Rossendale and Darwen's Janet Anderson, Burnley's Peter Pike and Hyndburn's Greg Pope and were devastated when they found that large areas of their constituencies had been dropped from a special map for government aid.

Last year the government promised that the assisted area map would include key wards in Burnley, Rossendale and Hyndburn.

However, the European Commission forced the government to rethink and removed nine wards in Burnley, some areas of Rossendale and three wards in Hyndburn from eligibility for regional selection assistance.

Inclusion would have opened up the areas for millions of pounds of government aid to create and safeguard jobs and attract business to the area.

On Wednesday night all parties on Burnley council pledged to battle to protect the town's hard hit manufacturing industry after chief executive Roger Ellis pointed out that the town had lost out to areas like Chester and Cumbria which did not have such severe problems. The three MPs immediately lobbied Richard Caborn now the Trade and Industry Minister responsible for the regions who was at the Department of the Environment with a similar brief when the map was drawn up.

Today Mrs Anderson, Minister for Film and Tourism, revealed to the Evening Telegraph that Mr Caborn had agreed to visit East Lancashire to discuss whether there was anything that could be done to persuade the European Commission to change its mind and put the wards back in to the map.

Mrs Anderson said: "I am very pleased that Dick has agreed to come up and meet us. This was a major blow to the region.

"We will discuss with him what we can do to attempt to change the mind of the European Commission.

"If we could do so it would be a major boost for jobs and investment in the area.

"We accept that this is a last ditch attempt but we feel we must do everything we can to try and restore this vital cash aid."

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