BURNLEY Council is to invest £375,000 on improvements to the town centre over the next 12 months.

The cash will be used to upgrade the pedestrianised area of the town.

As well as making improvements to the pavements and streets, new lighting could be installed to give the town a better feel in the evening and improve the night-time economy.

Winston Robinson, a senior engineer at Burnley Council, said: “The works will include as a minimum, replacing the street furniture, re-paving and renewing the planters along St James’s Street from Hall Street to Hammerton Street.

“A multi-disciplinary team has been established to progress this scheme which will learn from best practice from schemes in other towns and city centres.

“As part of the initial investigatory work for this scheme, officers have visited public realm works at Pendle and Blackpool and studied works in Manchester and Sheffield.

“As part of this research, it is felt that the use of amenity lighting which is now available for buildings and structures, such as the ‘Colourblast’ system used on the viaduct at Royle Road, could significantly enhance the town centre and should help improve the ‘night-time’ economy.

“As a result, this aspect of the scheme will also be further investigated as the design of the scheme is developed.”

The council does not employ a landscape architect at the moment.

But it will be able to share the one employed by Pendle Council as part of the job-share arrangements that have come into force between the two boroughs.