MORE than £50,000 has been earmarked for a council's alleygating scheme.

Burnley Council is planning to continue to expand its alleygating scheme across the borough as part of wider work to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

The council, which currently has 124 schemes in place across Burnley and Padiham, has set aside just over £51,000 in this year’s capital programme to help fund more security gates at “hot spots”, following consultation with residents.

Cllr Lian Pate, executive member for community and environmental services, said: "There is high demand for alleygates. We’ve doubled the budget which means double the number of schemes can go ahead."

There is funding in place in the current financial year to provide 10 new schemes which have been identified from this list as priorities, with consultation work scheduled to start in September and completion of the new schemes completed by March 2019.

Cllr Pate added: "We will continue to work with residents and communities to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. Alleygating is just one of the ways that we do that."

An update on the council’s capital budget will be presented to its executive on August 14.