RESIDENTS have set their sights on transforming a soon-to-be-closed Burnley library into a community base.

Under the latest Lancashire County Council libraries reorganisation, three branches - at Colne Road, Brunshaw and Barbon Street - are set to close.

A replacement super-library' will be created as part of the new Burnley Sixth Form campus, and is expected to be opened this September.

Thursby Gardens Residents' Group has already expressed an interest in the Colne Road facility.

Chairman Richard Chipps, of Pheasantford Street, says the group was the first to make a tentative bid for the library.

They have also drawn uo plans for the former canoe club building, once owned by Lancashire County Council, off Colne Road.

This will be used by younger people but the group wants to create a similar community facility for adults.

Mr Chipps said: "We want to offer something for the older people in the community, just as we want to do something for the younger people at the old canoe club."

He wants to continue to provide the popular homework classes, which take place at the library, along with English classes and adult education. And where the library offers computer access to the community, Mr Chipps wants this to retained once the county service is withdrawn.

"We want to offer everything that the library does except the books. I think we are the first to express an interest in the library," he added.

Burnley Council has agreed to lease the premises to the residents' collective at a peppercorn rent for the next 25 years, as the group's temporary base in Swinless Street has been closed down.

The next hurdle for the canoe club scheme will be planning permission for the ambitious project, before vandals leave the building unusable.