THE new owners of Burnley's flagship shopping centre today pledged an exciting development in the town after earmarking it for investment.

But King Sturge said it could not reveal how much money it would put into Charter Walk and said: "It could be anything between £500 and £5million."

Today president of Burnley and District Chamber of Trade Paul Roberts welcomed the news and Ian Stackhouse, of Burnley's Town Centre Management team, said the deal represented a bright future for the town.

The company has purchased four shopping centres across the UK -- but said Burnley was in the top two in terms of investment potential.

Local traders welcomed the announcement as "great news" and said they hoped it would be a boost for the whole area.

Adam Pemberton, head of retail at King Sturge said: "If we get our ducks lined up there's the potential to invest in the town.

"It could be substantial or it could be nothing, but we are very hopeful.

"We are in negotiations and anything I do say could affect them."

"We have ideas for the scheme which will improve the shopping on offer for the town centre, we are all very excited about it.

"But I can't relay the final details at this stage we are a couple months in front of the game at the moment.

"We bought Burnley's Charter Walk along with three others in Harlow, High Wycombe and Cardiff.

"The ones we consider to have the most investment potential are Harlow and Burnley, but they will all receive investment.

"I can't tell you how much simply because I don't know, it could be anything between £500 and £5million."

King Sturge is the management agent for Sapphire Retail Ltd, a joint venture company between Stratford-upon-Avon Stannifer Corovest and the Bank of Scotland

Sapphire bought Charter Walk from Great Portland Estates in a £235 million bid last year.

Mr Roberts said: "It is great they are going to make some investment in the area and hopefully it may lead to improvements in the surrounding streets as well.

"Any boost that comes from this cash injection is going to be a boost for the whole area and Burnley in general.

"On going investment and maintenance is key to the shopping area being kept in a good condition and attractive for out of town shoppers from other areas as well as Burnley customers."

Mr Stackhouse said: "The new owners have exciting ideas to improve the centre and although these are at a very early stage they promise a very bright future.

"Burnley has a lot of potential for investment and shopping, Burnley has 286 thousand people in a 15 minute drive from the centre.

"We are an independent body that works with companies like King Sturge and the council to try to get investment in Burnley.

"Burnley is in the 160's in the retail league, we were above Blackburn by two places last year, the roles have now been reversed, we have slipped back.

"We want this position improved and we want to move up the retail rankings, the higher you are the more money you get."

The Charter Walk shopping centre was originally opened in 1969 and currently has 92 shops, covering 43,570 square metres of retail space.