PLANS to build a new £2million technology centre on the former Michelin site in Burnley have been submitted to the council.

The proposals for the centre will be the first step in the redevelopment of the whole site, which is expected to take several years to complete.

Ian Whittaker from the North West Development Agency, which bought the site in April 2002 after the tyre factory was shut down by Michelin October 2001 with the loss of 452 jobs, said it is hoped that the new building will kick-start the site's redevelopment.

He said: "The centre will come about through a partnership between Northern Technologies, Burnley College and Lancashire County Development and will provide facilities for fairly high-tech manufacturing businesses in Burnley. It will give them a space and an opportunity to grow. There will be facilities for training within the centre.

"But this is the first step in the plans to redevelop the rest of the site and we are still working on the details of that. It is a complicated site and decisions have to be made about which buildings to keep and which to demolish to make way for new buildings and so on. All this will take some time to work out."

The planning application for the technology centre, which will train local people and is expected to create more than 1,500 jobs, will have to be approved by Burnley Council's development control committee, but if all goes to plan it is hoped building work will start before the end of the year.

Redeveloping the entire site is expected to take years and will cost the NWDA somewhere in the region of £15m, but will also need financial support from the private sector.

More detailed proposals for what will follow the technology centre are expected to be drawn up by summer next year.

Ian said: "The ambition is to attract high quality, skilled jobs and companies to the site and that is why we are starting with this technology management centre - that will be the catalyst and will attract other technology businesses to relocate to the site or start their operation there.

Outline planning permission to redevelop the site was approved by the council earlier this year. Although a condition was added that a scheme had to be put in place to protect a rare species of newt on the site.