A EUROPEAN guideline which means a housing estate could be passed over for lucrative subsidies will be debated in the House of Commons.

The Argus reported on Wednesday how the Moulsecoomb estate has not been recommended by the Government to receive Assisted Area Status.

Ministers applied to Europe last year for a stretch from Shoreham to Newhaven to be given the status.

The cash was due to be released on January 1 but a wrangle between Whitehall and the European Commission over which areas should be targeted delayed the scheme.

The new map means seven wards in Brighton and Hove are likely to receive the coveted title but a European guideline, which favours "compact, self-contained areas", means the Moulsecoomb and Stanmer wards have been left out because they jut out from the geographical block.

Instead, the Government has included the Hanover ward, which has lower levels of unemployment and crime.

Minister

Richard Caborn, Minister for Trade, will hold an adjournment debate to discuss the new map on Tuesday.

Des Turner, the MP for Kemp Town who wants Moulsecoomb put back on the map, said: "I asked to speak to the Government minister and he will hold an adjournment debate on the subject because there are other people who have been cut out as well.

"I hope to meet him after that or later in the week because we have got to get in there quickly.

"I am hopeful we can get this changed but it isn't over until we've got a result."

It comes after Moulsecoomb and Whitehawk won £47.2 million under the Government's New Deal for Communities initiative. The cash will be used to improve education, employment and health and to fight crime.

Brighton and Hove councillor Joyce Edmond Smith, who represents Hanover, said: "I think our ward deserves the money.

"We haven't been given anything from the New Deal."

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