OUR "gateway" routes will soon offer visitors a clearer welcome to the borough.

For the first time since the metropolitan authority was established in 1974, the boundary signs are to be upgraded.

The signs will cost £30,000, but council bosses hope corporate sponsors will foot some of the bill.

Seventeen green and white signs will be put up: four each in Ramsbottom, Prestwich and Radcliffe, three in Bury and two in Tottington.

There will be three types of sign and each will give specific township names as well as the Bury coat of arms. There will also be space for sponsorship plates.

Councillor Wayne Campbell, chairman of development and environmental services, said: "When you look around the region you realise that we are woefully behind many areas in the signposting and visual impression that greets visitors.

"Gateway sites and the boundary signs erected there are important. Ours are long overdue for change."

Coun Campbell hoped local businesses would meet much of the cost of the new signs, which should all be in place by the end of August.

"The borough is a place where many people are proud to live and work," he added.

"Our new boundary signs will proclaim that pride loud and clear.

"That will be a significant improvement over the tatty, damaged and dirty location markers that have greeted visitors in the recent past."

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