BOSSES at Brunner Mond say they have had to slash their spending plans after John Prescott surprisingly ordered a public inquiry into plans to build an urban village in Winnington.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced last month that Vale Royal Borough Council's decision to grant planning permission for the Winnington Urban Village has been 'called-in' for Mr Prescott's determination.

This will give the Government the chance to consider the proposals at a public inquiry in the town in July - but it could add up to two years on to the timescale of the multi-million pound scheme, backed by Brunner Mond and a host of housebuilders.

And bosses at the company say they have been forced to cut back on non-essential investment to their soda ash business this year as they will not be receiving the money from the sale of the land as soon as they were hoping.

Spending had to be cut last year, too, when Brunner Mond's original urban village plans were rejected.

Mark Chitty, Brunner Mond's director of corporate affairs and human resources, said: 'We had expected to receive some income this year from the sale of the urban village land to the consortium.

'It is now clear this income will not be received in the current year and this will directly affect our investment plans which have had to be very significantly reduced once more.

'The spending needed to address essential health, safety and environmental issues always has priority but with the reduced spend available this now makes up virtually all of our immediate spending plans.'

Mr Chitty admitted the consortium of housebuilders backed by Brunner Mond had not expected Mr Prescott's decision last month, particularly after council bosses had eventually given their blessing to the proposals.

He added: 'We were naturally disappointed with this decision. While we always knew that it was a possible course of action for the Secretary of State to take - particularly given the significance of this development - we had not expected the 'call-in' given the extensive consideration the proposal had been given already.'

He added: 'If the Secretary of State had not called in the decision the consortium would by now have completed the Section 106 agree-ment with the council that is needed to confirm the granting of the outline planning application and would be working on the detailed planning application that needs to follow.

'We had expected that these steps would be able to be completed in 2004 so the development of the site could then start.

'The date for the public inquiry has been set for July so we will now need to wait for that to be completed, the inspector to write his report and the Secretary of State to make a decision before we can make any progress. The timing therefore will be in the hands of the Secretary of State.'

But he vowed: 'All members of the consortium remain fully committed to the urban village project and are working hard on preparing to make a robust case for it at the inquiry.'