HYNDBURN Council is to advertise for a partner to invest in Accrington's market hall.

The leader of the council has admitted that the authority cannot afford to spend the hundreds of thousands of pounds needed to give the market a facelift.

One option is for the cash-strapped council to attract a partner who would take over the running of both the market hall, investing the cash to regenerate the Victorian building, and the outdoor markets.

The process has now moved a step closer to reality after a council committee rubber-stamped plans to begin the search for an investor.

The move was revealed at a meeting of the council's Town Centre Regeneration Board, when members agreed to endorse the authority's plans.

Nick Moule, regeneration manager for Hyndburn First, told the meeting: "We are in the process of putting an advert together and that will be shortly advertised in the regeneration press."

An investor is likely to take up a 125-year lease on the market hall, while Hyndburn Council hang on to the freehold. Critics of the plans have called the scheme a 125-year mortgage, but the council claims an outside investor is the only way to attract the necessary cash.

Councillor Peter Britcliffe, leader of the council and chairman of the Town Centre Regeneration Board, said: "We arelooking for is someone who will come in and invest and convince us they have the business acumen to take Accrington town centre forward."

Bill Huntly, town centre manager, said: "A market is the heart of a town and we have got to get it right."