'PAROCHIAL' Warrington Borough Council has been blasted for worrying about Widnes's exciting Waterfront Vision development.

A Halton councillor said Warrington councillors' concerns sounded like 'sour grapes'.

The row is over the state-of-the art, £80m business, leisure and tourism scheme called Widnes Waterfront Vision.

Halton council wants to build it east of Widnes, creating 3,000 jobs.

But Warrington council is concerned about the impact it will have on leisure and tourism in the local area.

Halton Cllr Rob Polhill said: "I think they are being a bit parochial, to be honest.

"I think they know we have lifted our game and we are seen as a bit of a threat and people may want to come here instead of Warrington.

"This is a quite exciting piece of land and there's a lot of interest being shown by some top development companies - on land that previously wasn't of much interest to anybody.

"It's a development site which is much sought after.

"So I think it's a bit of sour grapes."

He joked: "Probably Warrington people will want to come here - we won't bar them, or anything like that!"

And Halton council leader Tony McDermott said: "To suggest we should go off to Warrington for leisure facilities is a bit much."

John Earle, head of development and regeneration at Warrington council said: "Warrington council fully supports the regeneration of the Mersey valley corridor and has raised no objection to the Widnes Waterfront proposals.

"However, like any local authority, we have a duty to ensure that any proposals have regard to national and regional planning policies, and that was the basis of the council's comments."