BURNLEY is now presenting a united front in its bid to secure additional funding from the Government to further regenerate the town.

Rival bids had been proposed by the Daneshouse Calder Partnership and Burnley Regeneration Forum to secure £25million from the Single Regeneration Budget.

But at a board meeting of the Daneshouse Calder Partnership, it was unanimously agreed to support the forum's bid for cash, even though this will mean no extra funding will be secured from a successful SRB application for the Daneshouse and Calder areas.

In a joint statement chairman Coun Raja Arif Khan and secretary Ejaz Hussain said: "The partnership will continue to do all that it can to help to secure extra resources for the whole of Burnley, working with the other local partnerships and with the Burnley Regeneration Forum and in particular, to look for every opportunity to continue the regeneration of Daneshouse and Calder."

Burnley Council leader Coun Stuart Caddy had warned the rival bids could result in the town receiving no money at all and he welcomed the news that the partnership was now backing the forum.

He said: "While the SRB bid is not related to the Daneshouse and Calder area, both the forum and the council will continue to work with the partnership to regenerate the areas.

"We are proceeding well with plans to develop our SRB programme in preparation for a bid to the North West Development Agency at the end of the year."

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