A TOWN centre exclusion zone is being extended to cover shops in Briercliffe to keep thieves out of the area.

Burnley Exclusion Against Thieves In Town (BEAT IT!) was launched by the police in partnership with town centre traders in June 2000.

As part of the initiative, shoplifters were banned from entering participating stores and their photographs were circulated to all BEAT IT! members by police.

This resulted in one-year bans for 24 people and now shops in Briercliffe are hoping to emulate the town centre's success. Shop assistant at the Spar supermarket, in Burnley Road, Harle Syke, Jane Emmett said: "We would welcome any scheme of this sort.

"We have had a lot of problems with shoplifters, particularly people in their twenties, and anything like this would help."

Briercliffe community beat manager PC Richard Collopy said: "Shoplifting is just one of the issues I am looking at as the area's new community beat manager.

"And, while there aren't a huge number of shops in Briercliffe, nearly all those I have spoken to are either experiencing problems now or have experienced them in the past.

"The BEAT IT! scheme is an excellent example of the police working in partnership with traders to solve the problem and it appears to have worked well in Burnley so I don't see any reason why it can't work for Briercliffe too.

"All the shops I have approached about the initiative are very positive and looking forward to getting involved and reaping the rewards. We are all very confident that, by working together to address the problem of shoplifting, we can beat it!"