PLANS to transform the former Michelin site in Burnley into a £2million technology centre to train local people and create more than 1,500 jobs are back on track.

Councillors made a fresh bid for the cash needed to develop the site.

The council's executive passed proposals for the centre, to be jointly funded by North West Development Agency and European development money, earlier this year.

And although the NWDA originally indicated that money would be released to allow development work like detailed planning and surveying to take place, they backtracked and demanded the council tell them what development work proposed before any cash is handed over.

A new bid to the NWDA outlining the cost of development work such as surveys, structural plans and architects work was approved at last night's executive meeting of Burnley Borough Council and work on the centre can now go-ahead.

Once it gets off the ground the centre will provide a technology design, manufacturing and training facility aimed at local businesses and students and also have on-site manufacturing equipment and testing facilities.

The centre was originally planned to be built at Shuttleworth Mead Business Park, Padiham, but developers have switched to the Michelin site.

There is more space for further development and the site is more accessible for the town centre and students from Burnley College.

A separate development will now be sought for the Shuttleworth Mead site.

Plans for the 37-acre Michelin site in Bancroft Road were first highlighted earlier this year, when developers announced it would be redeveloped into a business park, creating hundreds of new jobs and boosting the town's regeneration over the next ten years.

The site contains about 400,000sq ft of space with potential for further expansion which the NWDA hopes could be used to attract other businesses to the area. The Michelin tyre factory, first opened in July 1960, was bought by the North West Development Agency after a downturn in the industry and cheap foreign labour prompted its closure and the loss of 452 jobs two months ago.