A Liberal Democrat politician was praised for her work on boosting allotment provision in a borough as its Labour executive approved a £150,000 programme over five years to improve local authority-owned smallholdings.

Burnley Council will now spend £30,000 a year to boost its supply and quality of allotments and introduce higher charges for bigger plots.

The authority's executive on Wednesday night approved the new strategy following a review of provision,

It currently provides 431 of the smallholdings for residents to grown their own plants, flowers and vegetables.

The strategy includes £15,000 a year to pay for a part-time allotments officer and another £15,000 annually over five years to allow for the clearing and splitting neglected plots and other minor improvements.

The senior councillors to approved the 'Allotment Action Plan' devised by Lib Dem Cllr Margaret Lishman when she was borough leisure boss as part of a Labour/Lib Dem partnership administration running Burnley Council before it dissolved after May's local elections.

Proposing the new spending and blueprint her successor Labour's Cllr John Harbour paid tribute to the work she had done on the issue ans thanked her for all the work she had put in on drawing up the plan.

His remarks were echoed by council leader Cllr Afrasiab Anwar.

A report to the meeting says: "The review identifies that there is a shortfall in provision and recommends increasing supply by splitting larger and under-used plots and investigating the provision of additional allotments sites on existing green spaces.

"The review also makes recommendations on a stepped charging policy."