A DELAY for a new mental health hospital has dealt another blow to a major business park in Burnley.

Plans for Lancashire Care Trust’s 150-bed unit in 10 acres of ground at Pollard Moor, near Padiham, could be scaled back.

The £37.5million project has been on the drawing board for nearly two years but no planning application has been forthcoming.

The announcement is the latest doubt to be raised over the massive Burnley Bridge business park. Land agents had hoped the hospital would take a quarter of the site.

Earlier this year it was confirmed the soon-to-be-axed Northwest Development Agency had withdrawn a £3.5m funding pledge for a new access bridge from the M65 at Hapton. But £4million of European funding is still available.

Major tenant Findel, the home shopping company, has also been reviewing its move to the site.

NHS bosses want the Pollard Moor land to replace outdated in-patient units in East Lancashire.

Lorraine Ritchen-Stones, the NHS trust’s capital project manager, said: “The project director has written to the site owner Eshtons to advise that the scheme will not be progressed until after Christmas at the earliest.”

But health officials have further said that uncertainty surrounding the projects will only be resolved next February after commissioners have reviewed the existing need for beds.