A £15m regeneration scheme in Woodnook has ground to a halt after the main contractors went into administration.

Greendale were appointed by developers PlaceFirst to carry out building and transformation work on Phase One of the scheme in Accrington.

However Greendale’s parent company Southdale Limited, a Yorkshire-based building firm specialising in affordable homes, has now gone into administration.

Administrators AlixPartners have now moved to secure the Woodnook site and all work has now stopped.

Martin Ellerby, head of new business and innovation at PlaceFirst, said they are working ‘extremely hard’ to get new contractors in place to resume the work.

He said: “Southdale went into administration on Wednesday night and they are the parent company of Greendale who were the main contractors on Woodnook Phase One.

“Work has stopped temporarily on the site as the administrators have moved security in.

“Our directors are working incredibly hard to find alternative contractors and we are confident we will find one very shortly.

“We see this as a delay and not a postponement and we are hoping to keep the delay to a minimum.

“Ideally we should be back on track in a matter of weeks and not months and we are quite confident of that.”

Mr Ellerby said they have contacted all prospective customers loving to move into the energy efficient two, three and four bedroom rental homes over the next few months.

He said: “We have been in touch will all our customers who have been going through the application process and letting them know and also local shopkeepers.

“The site is on a standstill for the time being and we are working very hard to move things forward.”