Much more than a make over

For occupants will find themselves involved in a scheme covering 18,000 homes across the country that the government has launched to give people and the quality of their lives priority over cars on the streets where they live.

And the plan to create a 'Home Zone' in the eight streets extending from Hudson Street to Westmorland Street in south west Burnley will entail far more than the 20 mph speed limits that have been imposed in residential areas elsewhere.

A key feature of the system is not just keeping traffic to very low speeds through lower limits, but making it happen through the way the streets are laid out, so that, essentially, pedestrians have the right of way over vehicles.

And together with potential improvements such as tree and shrub planting and designated parking places for residents, it is hoped that a better environment will be created that reclaims the streets for families living there -- enabling children to play safely outdoors and encouraging adults to come outside to sit, chat and socialise.

In all, the Home Zones are as much about fostering and restoring the sense of 'community' that used to prevail in most urban neighbourhoods as they are about managing traffic and road safety.

It is an idea borrowed from Holland -- where the government hopes to have turned every residential street in the country into a Home Zone by 2006.

But cars are popular and one drawback of Home Zones that critics foresee is that while they may remove and deter traffic from the streets where they are established, they may only push more vehicles into non-zone streets -- a factor that needs to be monitored if East Lancashire is to have still more of them.