A GATEWAY site in Brierfield is to be landscaped as part of efforts to spruce up the town centre.

Last year the former shops from 9-17 Railway Street were pulled down and the site flattened.

Now the borough council is set to use transitional funding from the housing market renewal programme to brighten up the land. Landscape architects employed by the authority have been asked to come up with designs for the sloping site and ward councillors are being consulted.

Elsewhere along the same corridor, progress is being made on the construction of 12 new homes in Holden Road, by borough development partners PEARL2.

An initial phase of eight is expected to be finished by developers this spring, when work will begin on the remaining four properties. Plans are also under way to clear the final remaining homes in Berkeley Street, once residents there relocate to Holden Road.

The site will then also be landscaped during the summer months.