INVITATIONS with a difference are dropping through the doors of more than 900 firms in the Burnley area this week -- all in the form of Chinese fortune cookies.

Boxes containing the snacks invite the business community -- the town's fortune makers -- to a special breakfast launch of Burnley's new five-year economic development strategy.

And the message in the cookies predicts employment and prosperity for all.

"We felt it was a novel way to win attention and get the importance of the launch across," said the council's development unit spokesman Joanne Etherington. "And it didn't cost any more than sending more normal invitations."

Two other initiatives will be unveiled at the meeting on June 23 at the new Foundry Lodge Hotel --formerly Proctor's Foundry -- in Hammerton Street.

It will be the launchpad for the first meeting of the new Employers' Forum -- a platform for business involvement in the development of the town.

And council chiefs will also reveal plans for a new style of local government in the town -- part of sweeping changes which will change the face of councils and the way they operate.