COUNCILLORS have pledged to fight "to the bitter end" to save a landmark former hospital from the bulldozers.

This follows the imminent failure of an ambitious £5 million scheme to transform it into a retirement village.

Housing chiefs are expected to confirm within days that they have refused cash backing for the project to turn Hartley Hospital, Colne, into a self-contained "village" of homes, shop and a social centre.

After years of campaigning to save the hospital, leading local Liberal councillor Tony Greaves fears the end may be in sight for the building, a gift to local people by benefactor Sir William Pickles Hartley.

"I am now very afraid that we are getting to the end of the road," he said. "I fear we may have failed and will see the owners moving the bulldozers in before the year is out.

"It is a tragedy that Pendle Council appears to have no legal powers at all to stop this happening. We shall continue to fight in other ways and do everything we can to stop it."

Pendle Council backed the scheme by Staffordshire Housing Association to turn Hartley into a retirement village for the over-55s, incorporating flats, shop and social centre run by the residents.

"Of all the proposals put forward this is the one that comes closest to the vision of Sir William Pickles Hartley as a benefactor for Colne," said Coun Greaves.

The Housing Corporation, which would have provided the majority of the cash to pay for the scheme, said it was not in favour of the project because it did not meet the housing needs of the area.

It is expected to confirm councillors' worst fears that it will not provide cash for the Hartley scheme when it announces its allocations for housing association funding in the next day or two.

Coun Greaves said campaigners battling to save Hartley had been betrayed time and again, firstly by the Tory Government and now by its Labour successors.

He also criticised Pendle Labour MP Gordon Prentice, for not throwing his full weight behind the scheme, and local Labour councillors, who attacked the Liberal administration for ignoring the Housing Corporation's advice that the project was not in line with local policy.

"We will not give up this fight until the very last round is over," pledged Coun Greaves.

"We are meeting the Housing Corporation and Government Office for the North West next week and will yet again argue the case there."

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