BURNLEY's landmark hotel the Comfort Inn is to get a major cash injection to put it back on the map.

The hotel -- still known locally as the Keirby -- has been taken off the market by its owners Choice Hotels Europe.

Today the company revealed it is to invest £80,000 to upgrade the interior and a further six figure sum for structural and cosmetic improvements to the outside of the seven-storey 49-bedroom hotel.

A former chef of the Royal Yacht Britannia, Richard Bell, 52, was appointed general manager by Choice four months ago and has been assessing the hotel's future.

Newcastle-born Mr Bell said: "I was brought in to kick the place into shape and I spent four months assessing it. Now I can say what the company's plans are.

"Phase one will see the reception area halved and combined with a residents' lounge bar. The Keirby suite, which I prefer to call the ballroom, has one of the best sprung dance floors in the area which will be burnished and large photographs of old Burnley and people who are important to industry and the town will be put on the walls.

"The restaurant will also be refurbished and we will be looking to take on more staff." Mr Bell lives at the hotel during the week and commutes home to Newcastle when he is off duty.

He said: "Phase one should start in the next few weeks and we will go back to the board with plans for phase two in the new year.

"Since being in Burnley I have found the people to be very warm. I have kept the same management team although I have brought with me my own chef Chris Irwin, from Bolton, who I have worked with for a long time.

"This place has lots of potential and since I have been here we have held quite a few dinners and I have made lots of friends.

"We want to get the confidence of people back in the hotel. I unwind in Burnley Miners Club and a lot of people there have tales to tell about the Keirby, as they still call it, and they talk of functions and having their weddings here. There is no reason why that can't happen again."