YOUTHS will be able to communicate at the touch of a button thanks to a £380,000 investment in 17 ICT learning centres across the county.

Lancashire County Council's youth and community service has won backing from groups such as the North West Development Agency, the Rural Development Fund and the East Lancashire to provide funding for the centres which will open across the whole of the county in community venues and schools.

The centres are being created to develop community use of ICT Broadband resources for personal and social education, to reduce social exclusion and break down the "digital divide" between families who can and cannot afford the resources at home.

Many of the centres are being set up in rural areas.

The new centres will be launched next Monday by a live link-up between young people at Longridge and Kirkham youth and community centres.

Lancashire County Council leader Hazel Harding said: "This is a wonderful opportunity for young people to not just communicate easily with their colleagues on the other side of Lancashire, but on the other side of the world in just a matter of minutes.

"Lancashire has many rural communities who can have problems in accessing email and internet access and these centres will make a tremendous difference for young people who will be able to make the most of the technology for personal as well as educational use."