THE bus station end of Burnley town centre is to receive a triple boost.

The owners of Safeway House at the Keirby end of the bus station are on the point of letting the ground floor of the property to a major family pub chain and are set to carry out a £400,000 redevelopment of the building.

Food giant Tesco is completing contracts with the council in the New Year so that work can start on its proposed 6,000 sq ft new food store in Centenary Way while work on the new £2.6 million bus station is now well under way.

Burnley council executive member for the town centre Gordon Birtwistle said: "This is great news for this area of the town centre which needs some investment.

"I am very pleased that investment will be going into Safeway House, one of the major and most prominent buildings. It ties in nicely with the new bus station."

He said all outstanding issues had now been resolved over the Tesco store plans and work on that should be starting next year.

He added: "It all amounts to a big boost for that particular area of the town centre." Mike Riddell, a director with Manchester-based developers Modus Properties said he was not yet in a position to name the pub chain who would be moving into the ground floor.

He hoped work would start on site by next March. He said: "I am no yet in a position to name the group involved but it is one of the major chains."

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

He added that the development would make a major improvement to the property which he accepted had been described as an eyesore in a prominent part of town.

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.