AN iconic structure will light up the Rossendale sky for the first time on September 20.

Wildworks, a company specialising in unusual outdoor locations, has been commissioned to help with lighting up the borough's Panopticon Halo'.

Wildworks, which will be looking to involve the community in the launch event, were present at Haslingden Street Fair on Saturday to introduce themselves and to explain the activities in the run-up to the launch of Halo'.

Final touches are being put to the sculpture on the hills above Haslingden, the fourth and final Panopticon in East Lancashire's series of 21st-century landmarks.

Lighting will be tested this week in readiness. The launch, involving local people and dignitaries, marks the culmination of six years of development for the East Lancashire Regional Park project, led by the Lancashire Econo-mic Partnership.

Council leader Duncan Ruddick said: "It will light up with a fairly dim beam going up into the sky. But it will be low-key so it is not disruptive to the local residents. This is a half-a- million pounds worth of regeneration on an old landfill site and the work that has gone on is superb."

This project will continue as part of the new Green Infrastructure initiative that will include further regional parks.

Designed by John Kennedy of LandLab, the 18m-diameter steel lattice structure, which used local contractors, sits on a former landfill waste site and is part of a project to reclaim the land for public use.

The lighting has been designed to minimise light pollution and to avoid any disruption to wildlife.

The low-level electrical requirement will be met by an adjacent small wind turbine providing a renewable source of power.

The Panopticons scheme has been funded by the Northwest Regional Devel-opment Agency, the Northern Way, the Lancashire Economic Part-nership, the Arts Council England North West and Lancashire County Council.

It has already created Colourfields' in Blackburn, The Singing, Ringing Tree' in Burnley, and the Atom' structure in Pendle.