RESIDENTS of a Burnley street had a bird's eye view of their community as they were asked to come up with ways of improving it.

Neighbours in Howard Street saw a scale model to help with plans for the south west area of town which is to receive an £887,500 Government grant to transform eight streets from the Hudson Street to Westmorland Street area.

The money -- from the Home Zone Challenge Fund, Urban II, SRB and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund -- will be used to create a Home Zone.

The model was used to give residents the opportunity to say how they would like to see the money spent, but possible work could include re-paving, introducing parking zones and adding traffic calming features.

Gordon Leighton, senior engineer at Burnley Borough Council, said: "The consultation period is for members of the public to tell us what they want.

"The better the ideas, the better their area will look. We will use the consultation to put all the ideas together and look to facilitate the most viable ones providing they are within our budget."

The creation of Home Zones was announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2001.

Key feature of the zones is to ensure traffic is kept to very low speeds. For existing streets this will usually mean re-paving with much wider pavements and possibly no kerbs.

A better environment where people will want to come out of their homes, relax and talk to neighbours and where children can play safely is the aim of designers working on the scheme.

Visitors to the consultation were also able to see the recently landscaped community area opposite the health centre and plant spring flowering bulbs .