THE multi-million pound regeneration of the Church and Oswaldtwistle Gateway could be threatened because of possible new Government health and safety rules.
The area had been earmarked for new offices, flats and shops along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and around the Commercial Hotel and Hargreaves Warehouse on Blackburn Road, Church.
But the project could be deemed too risky for new development because of its proximity to Blythe's Chemicals in an emergency, and centre on how effective evacuation procedures would be.
Councillors are now calling for a contingency plan to be in place for the area if the Church and Oswaldtwistle Gateway scheme falters because of this hurdle.
But Hyndburn Council leader Councillor Peter Britcliffe said in his personal view, if the plans fall through, the area should be subject to compulsory purchase orders and flattened as it is such an eyesore.
At a full council meeting on Tuesday he said: "Plans are once again in jeopardy because the Health and Safety Executive have changed the rules.
"We were eventually getting somewhere but because of the intervention the scheme may fail.
"You as well as I know there's no plan B. I would knock it all down and put grass there because what is there now is a disgrace, an awful abhoration.
"If it fails why don't we have a vote to knock it down and take out a compulsory purchase order on it?"
Councillor Britcliffe said the area was in such a poor state that if he ever brings visitors into Oswaldtwistle he uses different roads to avoid it.
However, the day after the debate, Labour's Councillor Jean Battle, said: "We do need a plan B because we can't leave it as it is.
"We have already got shops with dead pigeons in the windows and no roofs.
"It's a dreadful sight."
The problems with the scheme have occurred following work by the Health and Safety Executive to prevent the kind of large-scale destruction to surrounding residential areas that occurred when the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hertfordshire exploded.
It is also currently carrying out a consultation on Societal Risk which is looking at planning guidelines in the context of the number of people on site, living or working in areas around non-nuclear major hazard sites.
The Enza Group Limited of Chorley have been appointed as the preferred developer of the Gateway.
