AMBITIOUS plans to revive the fortunes of Burnley’s renowned Keirby Park Hotel will take shape this summer.

Hotel bosses have begun a major investment at The Keirby, in a bid to bring some of the glamour back to the venue.

Substantial redecoration is planned for each of the hotel’s 48 rooms, floor by floor, and the 250-capacity function room is also to be given an overhaul.

Hotel manager Paul Hancock said: “We know that the hotel has had a bit of a bad reputation over the past few years.

“But we are working closely with the council and a number of local agencies to make improvements and make it a place for everyone to enjoy.

“We are in a great location and there is a lot to the building.”

Mr Hancock believes that The Keirby can become a budget travel inn, within a ‘grand’ hotel setting, following the refurbishment.

Later the function room will be reopened to cater for weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, and there are proposals to create smaller meeting rooms nearby.

Future consideration will also be given to reopening the former Swiss nightclub, possibly as a restaurant.

Crown Properties, a firm which is behind two hotels in the Potteries, now has a long-term lease for The Keirby.

The cast for the 1961 film Whistle Down The Wind, which starred Hayley Mills, stayed at the hotel during filming.

This was shortly after the official opening, at a time when it was one of the few four-star hotels outside a major city.