A PRESTON art group, infamous for controversial public exhibitions, has changed its ways and settled into a gallery in the town centre.

Arcadia Group plc, which owns numerous high street fashion chains up and down the country, had allowed the 5:15 art group to use the former Burton's menswear shop in Fishergate.

But although the rent-free deal was initially for six-months, the group could be on the move in the next fortnight after Arcadia chiefs secured a new tenant.

The 5:15 art collective hit headlines earlier this year when the council were forced to remove some of their 'abstract' art displays from locations around the town due to health and safety risks to the public.

Eagle-eyed shoppers could not have failed to have noticed whitewashed furniture displayed in Church Street and a robot constructed from discarded metal products sat on a bench in Winckley Square.

But now 5:15 are showing off their art in the town centre in a more traditional way.

Paul O'Hara, chairman of the group, said: "Our plan was originally to get publicity through our 'Interventionist Art' installations, set up around the town. I was trying to raise awareness of the group so that even though people didn't know what the art was, or who did it, in the back of their minds they would remember it.

"But now we have changed our approach and hundreds of people are coming to see our art every day."

5:15 are a non-profit support group who exist to help local artists get their work displayed. The latest exhibition, called Gone for a Burton's, will be the first in a series of displays held for free in central locations around the town. Mr O'Hara said: "We have got lottery funding to do a project about local homeless people, but because we only have Burton's for a short time we need someone to volunteer their premises for one of our displays."

Arcadia Group were unavailable to comment.

Anybody with a room to spare -- big enough for a 5:15 exhibition -- should call 01772 515151.

The current exhibition runs from Monday to Saturday, from 11am to 6pm, until Friday, September 7.