A BLACKBURN call centre earmarked for closure less than three years ago is to benefit from a £13.5million redevelopment fund.

British Telecom's site in Jubilee Street is to be transformed into a state-of-the-art customer contact centre after the firm announced a £100million initiative, which includes £13.5million for the North West.

The news comes after BT made a u-turn on proposals to shut the exchange centre in in August last year, saving 160 jobs. Original plans to close the centre were announced in October 1999.

The Blackburn centre is one of four to be developed into a state of the art, multi function centre over the next two years.

The next-generation centres will be in Blackburn, Lancaster, Skelmersdale and Warrington with money spent on training, cutting-edge technology and improving the working environment. The aim of the project is to develop the sites into "world class contact centres."

As part of the two-year project, 53 existing call centres will close within two years, including six in the North West.

It is estimated that 68 per cent of people will relocate to neighbouring next-generation sites with a loss of around 2,200 jobs, though BT said no jobs will be lost in Blackburn.

BT have also assured employees that there will not be any compulsory redundancies, with workers redeployed or taking voluntary redundancy.

Spokesman for BT, Francis King, said: "We need to make sure that people are aware that there will not be any compulsory redundancies.

"The employees who currently work at sites which are due to close will be re-located, re-employed and re-skilled if that is what they want to do.

"With this we will ensue our people get the best training, have the best working environment and can take advantage of cutting-edge technology to deliver the kind of service customers want."

The new centres are aimed at improving the standard of service offered to all their customers.