Leaders celebrate opening of Burnley's £6m. Town2Turf Levelling Up project with ribbon cutting

Leaders gathered to mark the successful completion of the project, with the Mayor of Burnley Shah Hussain cutting the ribbon.

The scheme, funded by the UK Government, with match funding from Burnley Borough Council, aims to improve pedestrian access between the town centre and Turf Moor.

Wider pavements, improved road crossings and traffic management will make it easier and safer to walk through the area and encourage increased pedestrian traffic along Yorkshire Street.

It’s also hoped that the improved access to and from the town centre will encourage football fans visiting Turf Moor to make greater use of the town centre, before and after a match.

Coun. Lubna Khan Executive, Burnley Council Member for Development & Growth, said: "Town2Turf has been a long and complicated project, but it will help transform a key gateway to the town and make it far more attractive for people to use, especially for those on foot.

“This popular route was jaded and in need of investment. It has now been transformed, making it much more pleasant to walk from the town centre to the Turf. We are confident that this will have a positive knock-on benefit for the businesses in Yorkshire Street and around the Keirby Walk side of the shopping centre.”

The 18-month rolling programme worked its way from Turf Moor to the town centre and included major changes to one of the busiest road junctions in Burnley to make it safer and

easier to navigate, and improve access to the town.

Burnley Council contracted Lancashire County Council to deliver the scheme. The county council also scheduled vital maintenance to the The Culvert aqueduct in Yorkshire Street last summer to reduce overall disruption to the area and avoid the need for further road closures in the near future.

Attending the opening was: MP Oliver Ryan; Burnley Council’s Kate Ingram, Lukman Patel, Suzanne Pickering and Afrasiab Anwar; Doug Metcalfe, Director of Operations at Burnley FC; Laurence O’Connor, Chair of Burnley BID and CEO of Financial Affairs; Mayor Shah Hussain; Laura Diffey, Burnley BID Manager; and Lancashire Council’s Matt Townsend, Coun. Aidy Riggott, Gary Petherbridge, John Davies and Ambrose Young.