A COMMUNITY centre is set to rise from the ashes in Nelson - but at a cut price.

Councillors have agreed to use £33,397 insurance money to replace the former Walverden Community Centre, Brunswick Street, which was destroyed by fire last summer.

They had until July 3, the first anniversary of the fire, to decide what to do or risk losing the insurance claim cash.

Last night, Pendle Council's resource management committee, which holds the authority's purse-strings, agreed to use the insurance money to provide a new centre for residents in the town's Cloverhill, Walverden and Southfield wards.

Plans for the new centre on the same site will be drawn up as soon as possible.

But a question mark still remains over whether there will be enough cash to provide a new centre. The committee was told that a recent estimate for a basic one-room building with toilets and a kitchen was £50,000. Original estimates for the Walverden centre were as high as £75,000.

Work on the new centre has to start within three months of the anniversary of the fire and be completed within six months of the date.

Councillor Colin Waite, representing local people, told the committee: "The residents are already meeting with business people and builders to look at ways of reducing the building costs."

Councillor Roger Abbiss, in moving that the new centre be built, said: "You should be aware of the strength of feeling of people in the area. We do not accept that the only conceivable solution is to spend £75,000."

Liberal Democrats on the committee agreed a new centre was needed but warned not enough money was available to allow the scheme to go ahead.

"By voting for this resolution you are making sure that there is not a community centre in that area," Lib Dem Alan Davies warned.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.