PUBLIC concerns over personal safety, litter and dog fouling in Burnley parks and open spaces are to be tackled under a major improvement plan unveiled today.

The 73-point plan covers the next five years and is based on a fundamental review of the maintenance of parks and open spaces across the borough.

Burnley has 422 hectares of parks and open spaces which include six main parks, Towneley, Queens, Thompson, Scott, Ightenhill and Memorial.

The council also provides three golf courses, ten cricket pitches, 42 football pitches, two all-weather pitches, 19 bowling greens, 25 tennis courts and Barden Athletics track.

Key action points will give priority to issues which park users said were most important to them.

These include the maintenance of sports pitches, provision and cleaning of public toilets, tackling litter and dog fouling and improving feelings of personal safety.

Executive member for leisure Barry Gutteridge said: "It is only right that we listen to the views of people who use the parks, and pay for them through their council tax.

"We have done that as part of this review and will be making sure that the areas they have identified are given priority."

The review shows that the cost of maintaining Burnley's parks and open spaces has dropped by eight per cent in recent years while the area maintained has grown by nine per cent, due to housing and derelict land clearance.

The cost of looking after all of the town's parks cost more per head than other local authorities, but this has been blamed on the fact that the borough has more parks than the national average.