Dozens of residents attended the re-opening of a local opticians last week following a £500,000 makeover.

A new opticians in Charter Walk Shopping Centre in Burnley opened on Friday, February 16, with the Burnley Mayor alongside a long-standing customer unveiling the store.

The launch day saw the Mayor, Councillor Raja Arif Khan, and Linda, who has been a customer for more than 25 years, officially open the state-of-the-art Specsavers store in a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Mark Addison, Specsavers Burnley store director, said: "We’re delighted that the Mayor and Linda were able to attend the launch and officially open the store. 

"We were overwhelmed by the number of customers who popped in to join the celebrations.

"Equipped with the latest eye care, audiology services and retail technology, our new home is the perfect base for our expert optometrists and audiologists to look after the people of Burnley’s vision and hearing."

Lancashire Telegraph:

The celebrations continued on Saturday, February 17, when customers met volunteers and pups from Hearing Dogs for the Deaf charity, who trains puppies to alert people who are deaf to the important and lifesaving sounds that they might otherwise miss, such as a smoke alarm, alarm clock or even a baby crying. 

Having cared for the community’s eye and ear health for the past 30 years, Specsavers Burnley underwent a major transformation, including expanding into the former designer outlet next door, to bring additional eye health and hearing services to the town.

Mayor Khan said: "This is a real asset to Burnley.  It’s a fantastic store with all the latest high-tech equipment, and I for one will be visiting for my recommended routine eye test every two years."

The store features the state-of-the-art equipment including an additional Optical Coherence Tomography scanner, which produces a structural scan of the eye helping optometrists to detect a range of eye conditions up to four years earlier than traditional methods.

Specsavers, which also offers a Home Visits service for those unable to visit one of its 1,000 locally-owned stores, provides a range of eye care services that not only maintain people's eye health and vision, but also help detect broader health issues.