A FINAL plea to save Darwen's Redearth triangle from the bulldozers to make way for a new academy was made as a public inquiry into the scheme closed.

Fighting back tears, residents' representative Simon Huggill told Inspector Christina Downes that after two years of research he felt building the academy in the town centre would destroy Darwen.

He said: "It's quite vital we do not have the academy there.

"To do so I think would absolutely devastate our town centre and we would spend years trying to re-establish our town.

"I think we are staring one of the biggest mistakes of our town's history right in the face. It will destroy us."

However, barrister David Elvin QC, speaking for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said if the Redearth site was not approved, funding for the academy could be lost entirely, even if a feasibility study for another site were produced.

"There is no general funding approved for an academy in any other location," he said.

"It is not established that the current funding would remain even if revised proposals were devised."

The inquiry is looking into whether the council's second compulsory purchase order to clear remaining homes in the Redearth triangle can go ahead.

The first was defeated at a public inquiry last year.

Mr Huggill - a newly elected Liberal Democrat councillor - and Coun Michael Johnson told the inspector that many councillors were opposed to the CPO.

However after a quickly arranged meeting with leader of the council, Coun Colin Rigby, on Wednesday night Mr Elvin spoke on his behalf to confirm that continuing with the CPO was the final position of the council.