A HOST of developers vying for a £20million contract to regenerate a historic part of Nelson has been whittled down.

Regeneration bosses have drawn up a final shortlist of three archi-tects to put forward in depth proposals for the transformation of White-field.

Designers from across the country entered a competition, run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on behalf of the Whitefield Regeneration Partnership (WRP).

Plans from six shortlisted developers went on show in February and judges have now reduced that number to three.

Bosses are keeping the names of the final three under wraps but Nelson-based Barnfield Construction and Clitheroe architects IWA were part of the six.

Others included Urban Splash, which won an RIBA competition in 2004 to redevelop a site on the banks of the River Irwell in Salford, as has Adactus Housing Group which is already creating a terrace of seven houses in Whitefield.

A Pendle Council spokeswoman aid: "From the six developers who submitted plans this has been shortlisted to three.

"They will be giving presentations which will include more details on their proposals and we expect an announcement will be made next week."