Town centre traders in Burnley have thrown their weight behind a campaign to encourage people to keep the shopping centre clean and tidy.

Work on a £3 million regeneration of the centre has been temporarily put on hold in the busy run-up to Christmas. But the work that has been completed so far gives a taste of how fresh and modern Burnley centre will look once the scheme is completed.

And traders are keen to get shoppers and other visitors on board to help keep it that way.

They have joined forces with Burnley Council in a poster and social media campaign to encourage people to take a pride in their town and tackle the problem of dropped litter and discarded chewing gum.

New trees have been planted in Curzon Street and decorated with Christmas lights, to go with new paving and benches that help make the town centre more welcoming. Parts of St James Street are also well on their way to having a “new look” for the new year. Work to complete the scheme will continue in early 2017, weather permitting.

Town centre businesses were happy to support the “keep it clean” campaign and put forward staff to help spread the message. After all, a clean and bright town centre is an attractive one, and that means it’s more likely that people will want to shop and spend money there. Burnley Market traders and representatives from Charter Walk shopping centre also took part.

Ashleigh Harrison, store manager at McDonald’s, said: “We’re always looking to have a nice clean image and we see our store and Burnley town centre as a big part of that.

“We want to be attracting families and people to come and have a nice social time and having a clean, welcoming environment is very important to us.

“Our staff work really hard to keep not only inside the restaurant clean but also the outside of the store. It’s important for us to have somewhere we can be proud of.”

Adam Browne, from River Island said: “Keeping the town centre clean is something I’m passionate about. I work here. It’s somewhere I come every day and I spend a lot of time outside, taking my lunch breaks.

“The council has invested a lot of money in regenerating the town centre, which looks amazing, and I want to keep it that way.”

The work is jointly funded by Burnley Council and Lancashire County Council