A NEW town centre pub will provide a venue for families and rid Burnley of a "blot on the landscape" when it opens.

The Litten Tree has consumed 6,500sqft in Burnley's Safeway House off Centenary Way.

The building, adjacent to the bus station, was refurbished by Surrey Free Inns when £6.5million plans to redevelop the area collapsed.

Safeway House is a five-storey building, which will also include shops and offices.

Surrey Free Inns also runs the Slug and Lettuce chain, which includes pubs across the North West.

Town centre manager Lisa Durkin said the Litten Tree should add diversity to Burnley and help rid the town of a "blot on the landscape".

She added: "The pub is definitely an improvement on what was there before and it is looking as nice as it ever has. It is very modern and open and as a family pub, should provide diversity for the town."

The £2.6m redevelopment of the bus station is going ahead separately and is set to open next weekend after a number of delays.

Safeway House is owned by Manchester-based developers Modus Properties who submitted plans for the building, long regarded as an eyesore, last year.

Food giant Tesco is also planning a 6,000 sq ft new food store in Centenary Way complete with underground parking which is scheduled for completion next spring or summer.

Empty shop properties in Gunsmith Place facing on to the bus station are to be developed rather than demolished while office accommodation in the five-storey property is also to be developed.

It will cost about £400,000 to do up. The pub development will create 25 full-time and part-time jobs.

The ground floor was once a Safeway supermarket with Inland Revenue offices on the higher floors.

Tesco's plans are for a foodstore and car park on the site of the former GPO building and builders' merchants across Centenary Way from the bus station.