BURNLEY Council has been praised for making positive changes in the way it works to address community cohesion.

Two official publications highlight key steps forward the council has taken.

A new booklet called "Bridges or Barricades - community cohesion and community development", from the national Community Development Foundation, says the council has "made major positive changes in the way it consults with communities".

There is praise for the investment the council has made in communication. The emphasis the council now puts on explaining its area-based regeneration projects to people across the borough is singled out as good practice.

The booklet argues that in the past "council officers and agency workers were so focused on the complex task of delivering projects in the regeneration areas and consulting with people there, that they took their eye off the need to engage with residents in the wider borough."

However, the booklet also notes that "now time is being taken to explain government programmes to all residents, not just those in the intervention areas where money can be spent directly."

And the council's work to develop the Burnley Sports Alliance, which brings together sporting organisations across the borough, has been highlighted as good practice in "Community Cohesion - an action guide", new guidance from the Local Government Association.

The Alliance is judged to be making a big contribution to bringing communities together through sport.

Council leader Stuart Caddy said: "We recognise that the disturbances the town suffered in 2001 were linked to resentments and frustrations that there were about targeting of funds. We know, too, that there remain problems of parallel lives, where people aren't enabled to have enough contact with each other across the divides of race, even though they are interested in the same things.

"Both of these new publications cite Burnley as an example of a place that is moving on from these problems."