ORGANISATIONS in Burnley are celebrating today after receiving more than £300,000 to help fund various projects.

The cash from the Big Lottery Fund will see Burnley and District Citizens Advice Service (BDCAS), Age Concern and the Parochial Church Council of St Stephen receive a share of £309,336.

The biggest beneficiary is BDCAS which has being awarded £173,759 to employ two bilingual advisors over the next three years.

Rosemary Bowling, chief executive officer for BDCAS, said one advisor would be fluent in Urdu, the other Bengali. They would, she said, hopefully be in place by November to widen the services the organisations offers to the 21,000 people it sees each year.

She added: "We are delighted with the award. It will make a big difference to the services we can offer.

"We are really pleased because the lottery fund has cut the funding available by half so this is even more of an achievement.

"This money will help us give advice to all the community, and in particular to those speaking Urdu or Bengali."

Age Concern received £112,577 which the charity said it will use to run a range of activities aimed at encouraging old people to lead a healthy and active lifestyle over the next three years.

Jane Killeen, care services manager for Age Concern Lancashire, said the project would be aimed at residents in Brunshaw, Fulledge and Turf Moor.

She added: "We are absolutely thrilled and really excited we have got this opportunity to develop projects with older people in Burnley. We want to include the older people in every stage of this project."

The £23,000 awarded to St Stephen's church council will go towards building new access to the community rooms, having new heating installed and improving the kitchen, seating and decor.