AN extra £150,000 is being invested this year to make pedal power a viable alternative for Burnley workers and pleasure riders.

Work has already focused on ensuring their are safe and environmentally-friendly routes to the borough’s high schools for students.

And now the same premise is behind four key schemes, which are set to be discussed by the council’s executive on Tuesday, June 26.

Around £25,0000 will be spent on providing a link across Pollard Moor, from the Burnley Bridge Business Park, to Manchester Road in Hapton.

Likewise workers should be able to benefit from £56,000 proposals to extend routes from the Padiham Greenway to Simonstone and Altham.

Other initiatives, would see £40,000 and £10,000 put aside respectively to upgrade a footpath from Shuttleworth Mead to Higham, so both riders and walkers can use the route.

The remaining cash will be earmarked for minor improvements such as providing guard rails and barriers along parts of various pathways.

Coun Shah Hussain, the council’s executive member for community services, said: “These projects build on work carried out in previous years to improve our greenways and cycling routes.

“People who use bikes find it’s a way of getting around that helps keep you healthy. And, given the price of petrol these days, is a much cheaper alternative to the car.

“By creating a network of safe, off-road routes we are making it safer and easier for people to use pedal power to get to and from work, or just as a leisure activity.”