BURNLEY council has drawn up a detailed road-safety plan in an attempt to ensure that the £200,000 it won a national competition is spent here in Burnley.

The borough won the cash after coming second in the government's Safe Town contest, but the prize has been awarded in the form of an increased grant to the county council, and there is a possibility that the money will be distributed across Lancashire.

Burnley council officers are now proposing to concentrate road-safety spending on an area bounded by Manchester Road, Trafalgar Street, Accrington Road and Rossendale Road.

They hope the plan will persuade the county council to give Burnley the full £200,000.

Councillors will tonight (Thursday, March 14) discuss a report by highways manager Geoff Fairhurst. He says the government expressed a wish that all the money would go to Burnley.

"There was and is a very real danger that the money would just be added to the Lancashire County Council small highway improvement budget and shared out between all the districts.

"With this in mind, it has been proposed that an area be targeted and meetings have been taking place with the police, county council highways, social services, education, and the health authority."

Suggestions include plans for safer pedestrian routes to schools and the town centre, traffic calming measures on main roads, cycle-ways, a 20mph zone and mobile speed camera.

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