WORK on a major facelift for Burnham town centre should start in early 2015 after a series of delays.

The planned £440,000 revamp will include improving street lighting with a LED system and replacing lighting columns with more attractive heritage-style structures in Victoria Street. 

Also planned are up to 17 hanging baskets, while coloured paving is in the pipeline between Cross Street and Adam Street, which will mean the area can be used for entertainment and street events.
It is hoped the enhancement project will make the area more attractive to increase visitor numbers to the seaside town.

Concerns had been raised that the scheme was staking a long time to get off the ground after being approved 18 months ago, but all the elements are coming together and the beginning of 2015 is now a cast iron start date for the bulk of the project, Burnham and Highbridge Town Council has confirmed.

The scheme has been funded mainly by Tesco’s Section 106 Agreement money of £320,000 with £120,000 from the now defunct South-West Development Agency.

A project manager has been employed by the town council receto move the project forward and will be joined by a part-time town centre manager who is expected to be recruited in the next couple of weeks.

Cllr Neville Jones, who sits on the town council’s projects committee, said it had taken 15 years to get the town centre project off the ground and he was delighted that they now had a firm date of January 5 for work to start.

He said: “By and large it’s a good scheme and I’m pleased, but I hope any street performances in the paved area don’t disrupt High Street trade too much.”