BURNLEY is bidding for Millennium Fund cash to create a £2.5 million centrepiece to the town's Weavers' Triangle complex.

The scheme would provide a new visual arts centre and public square and also involve the widening of the canal basin to provide more visitor boat moorings.

The project would also include reconstruction of the feature clock at Clock Tower Mill and a viewing gallery.

Councillors have already submitted the outline scheme to the Commission and will know by the end of the month whether it is suitable to attract National Lottery cash funding.

If the project is given the initial nod, the authority will be asked to work up the plan in fine detail.

A report will be made to tonight's meeting of the economic and property sub committee. It says the council would link with its partners to achieve a scheme "which is imaginative, bold and has a high architectural design with environmental quality."

Artists would be involved at both design and implementation stages say officers, who add the purpose of the project is to provide a centrepiece and focal point not only within the Weavers' Triangle, but to benefit the town as a whole.

They believe the scheme is essential if further investment is to be attracted to the Triangle.

Officers add that if the submission is successful, there will be running costs which will have to be met by the council, British Waterways and the Highways Agency. .

Councillors will be hoping for a second successive success with the Millennium Commission, having already received £1.77 million towards the £3.5 million cost of creating a new Forest of Burnley to mark the start of the new century.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.