PLANS for Burnley's new fire station have been submitted to the council.

Under the proposals the existing station in Ormerod Road would be knocked down and replaced with a new Community Fire Station', training house and tower.

The new station will be built under the controversial Private Finance Initiative scheme where developments are built by private companies and they are paid back by the public sector over a number of years, usually 25.

The scheme will bring the total of Private Finance Initiative projects in the town to four with the Building Schools for the Future programme, Phase 5 at Burnley General Hospital and the St Peter's health and leisure centre.

The scheme is part of a plan by Lancashire, Merseyside and Cumbria fire services to build 17 Community Fire Stations and an Operational Resource Centre in the North West.

The aim of the £40million project is to deliver improved response times by replacing old or poorly-located facilities. The facilities to be provided range in size from single-appliance fire stations to four-appliance stations with additional garaging for special equipment. Some of the sites include training facilities and additional office space.

Stations are also planned for Blackburn and Chorley.

The initial stage will be an advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union inviting Expressions of Interest - currently programmed for late summer.

Whoever is chosen to build the new facility will be paid on a monthly basis for 25 years from the handover to the fire authority.