TRANSPORT bosses are hoping to stop yobs loitering round a new bus station - by blasting them with classical music.

Passengers using Burnley's new station will now be able to catch Debussy as well as the bus -- along with other composers like Handel, Mozart and Bach -- at the state-of-the-art terminal.

Transport chiefs think classical music and jazz could deter anti-social youths using the facility as an evening hang-out.

The plan is based on similar schemes in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and North Carolina in the US, but is believed to be the first in the North West.

Transport bosses in the North East say the scheme, which is used on Sunderland's Metro system, has led to a marked reduction in anti-social behaviour on public transport.

Coun Colin Waite, chairman of Lancashire County Council's public transport working group, said: "There is a saying that music has charms to soothe the savage breast, so this would seem like an idea worth trying.

"Burnley and other places like Colne also have a fine tradition of jazz festivals so we could have different types of music being played."

The move is part of a £130,000 package aimed at further improving the multi-award-winning bus station, which opened last year.

The improvements, given the green light at a county council meeting earlier this month, cover a number of recommendations from users of the bus station, together with feedback from a council working group's inspection of the facility.

The work will include:

a new entrance lobby to minimise wind passing through the bus station at an estimated cost of £100,000;

a £9,000 audio system which will combine messages to the public - such as advising passengers not to cross the bus apron - together with music during the evenings;

cycle lockers to enable more secure storage of cycles, especially for long term users, costing £6,000;

a package of improved signs, including electronic signs displaying bus services which link with Burnley Manchester Road and Central Railway Stations, costing an estimated £18,000.

Lancashire County Council will provide the cash for the work arranged by the borough council, which will also pay for running costs of the audio system. Work will start next year.

"Burnley and other places like Colne also have a fine tradition of jazz festivals so we could have different types of music being played."

A spokesman for Nexus, which runs the public transport system in Sunderland, said: "We have got a system of playing classical music on the Metro and it certainly seems to have worked in dissuading the youngsters from hanging around. The sound of Beethoven just seems to drive them up the wall."

Burnley's multi-million pound bus station has won four awards in the year since its completion, including the Medium Sized Interchange Project of the Year title at the Integrated Transport Awards in London earlier this year.

The space-age station, the result of a multi-million pound partnership between Lancashire County Council and Burnley Borough Council, has proved popular with passengers and bus operators since opening in August 2002.