A BURNLEY recreation ground is to get a new lease of life after it was agreed to spend more than £700,000 improving the site.

Fulledge Recreation Ground - home to one of the town's biggest annual bonfires and Wakes Week fair - has been included in Lancashire County Council's REMADE scheme, which aims to turn derelict land into open spaces, footpaths and cycleways, because its use of a former rubbish tip left the site contaminated.

Now £727,000 will be spent upgrading the recreation ground which will see a new football pitch and footpaths being built, an extended wetland area created to attract more wildlife and improvements made to drainage.

Coun Roger, Burnley Council executive member for leisure, said the proposals came from residents at a public consultation earlier this year.

Earlier plans to move Burnley Cricket Club to the site were rejected by people living nearby.

Coun Frost the scheme would enhance Towneley Park and made the council more determined to fight the county council's plans to build Unity College - a replacement for Towneley High - in the park.

He said: "The work to Fulledge Recreation Ground is a great bonus to the town as the land has not been as attractive as it could be.

"Spending the money on that piece of land will do a great deal to enhance the park.

"It's a pity the county council want to build a school in the middle of a 700-year-old park.

"We do not want to see an ultra-modern building in the middle of the park."

Work on the recreation ground will start in March and should take four months. New material will be placed over the existing contaminated earth to improve drainage. This will be covered by topsoil then seeded with grass.

The annual Wakes Week fair and community bonfire, organised by Burnley Lions Club, will have to move to a new home in 2007 and possibly 2008 if the grass has not bedded in properly.

But they will be able to use the site in the long term.

However, a new site for a car park for football matches at nearby Turf Moor will have to be found as the rec' would no longer be able to be used.

Simon Goff, from the council's greenspaces department, said: "There may be other sites that could be suitable for football parking in and around Fulledge and the town centre area and these potential sites will be investigated by officers in consultation with residents and ward members."