A PROJECT which helped part of Burnley clean up its act has earned Burnley Borough Council a prestigious national award.

Council chiefs have received a People and Places award in the New Programme of the Year category for their Squeaky Clean programme, which helped tidy the Daneshouse and Stoneyholme area in a crack down on litter, graffiti and waste.

Organisers ENCAMS, the group which runs the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, judged Burnley's contribution to the scheme the best in the country this year, out of 23 areas who took it up.

Burnley council took on the scheme and involved residents from both areas, including Bangladeshi Welfare and the Jinnah Community Associations.

The programme involved an immediate clean-up, concentrated around the Holme Road businesses area and the canal, which also saw British Waterways get involved.

The council provided skips which were painted up, while local youngsters designed posters to promote the campaign and 30 extra litter bins were also installed around the area.

Judges for the awards were particularly impressed with the fact that use of the skips was promoted in Urdu, Bengali and Pushto.

And they praised the fact that the Bangladeshi Welfare Association were brought to the heart of the campaign, which included re-development of the March Street site.

Future plans for the area include using the teachings of the Koran to work with mosques promoting environmental awareness and an initiative to encourage composting.

ENCAMS chief executive Alan Woods said: "Many councils take a 'one size fits all' appraoch to reaching their residents and then are surprised that minority groups don't engage with them. Thankfully Burnley didn't fall into that trap."

The award was presented at a ceremony in the Shaw Park Plaza Hotel in London.