HOPES for a £20 million scheme to create parklands in Bolton's river valleys have been dashed.

The Millennium Commission has revealed that the massive plan is not even among the projects being considered for National Lottery funding.

It was hoped that the lottery would provide around half of the cost, with the rest coming from the private, public and voluntary sectors.

The "Living Links" scheme was devised to create "a cleaner, greener, healthier Bolton."

Now urgent talks are to take place to see if part of the ambitious project can be salvaged.

The scheme would have provided six millennium parks in the river valleys of Bolton and extended Queens Park right into the heart of Bolton town centre.

It was also hoped to establish a fund for local environmental schemes, an environment centre and five "safari" centres with video walls and information technology services.

Mrs Jean Wilson, chairman of Bolton's Millennium Partnership Group said: "It is a bitter blow for the borough.

"A meeting has been arranged for this week to look at the bid and see which parts of the project can be saved. "It is a worthwhile project and we need to look at other means of funding.

"Every element won't go ahead, but there will be ways in which we can improve Bolton's environment for the future.

"It was a very good scheme which would have turned around the many years of environmental damage caused by the success of the Industrial Revolution.

"Everyone worked hard on the project and with public support, we believe we had a winning bid."

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