Horwich town councillors have pinned the blame for the collapse of plans to renovate Rivington Gardens on a bad public relations campaign by North West Water.

The council supported a £15 million bid to regenerate the Lever Park area which spectacularly failed to gain Millennium funding despite a huge debate on its future.

The scrapped plans for Lever Park would have included the restoration of the Terraced Gardens - originally laid out by Lord Leverhulme 100 years ago.

Councillors now claim the water company was ineffective in countering hostile press from opponents of the scheme.

Horwich council also backed a controversial parliamentary bill which would have overturned a historic law preventing the development of Lever Park.

Councillors have written to North West Water saying: "The council regrets the adverse publicity and misleading information circulated by opponents of the recently failed Lever Park Bill which, in the Council's view, played a major part in the failure of the Millennium funding bid.

"It is the company's own responsibility to persuade the general public that its obligations both as landowner and a water company are not incompatible with applications for grant aid."

There were claims by objectors that the plan would hit Lever Park's "protected and free from all commercial development" status.

But Horwich councillors have made a plea to treat the gardens as separate from the general Lever Park area.

They said: "The council feels that the public need to be reminded that the gardens are not part of Lever Park and are not, therefore, subject to the restrictions of the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act.

"There appears to be a general wish to see some improvements to the Terraced Gardens but there is a range of views about how much restoration is appropriate.

"Horwich Town Council believes the present condition of the gardens is barely acceptable and reflects badly on NWW as landowner.

"However, a full restoration of the gardens to the pomp they enjoyed as the ground of an Edwardian gentleman's country mansion would be inappropriate to their present surroundings and prohibitively expensive to maintain.

"The precise extent of restoration to be undertaken is one of the matters on which there should be wide public consultation."

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