RESIDENTS have been urged to come up with ideas on how to improve their communities with £75,000 of regeneration cash.

Exhibitions are planned in Hoddlesden and Pickup to spur people into having their say over the best way to use the grant.

The money is part of a government pilot scheme to improve services for rural areas and the East Rural Ward is the only one in the area to have been allocated the cash.

Chairman of the area's community zone shadow board, Coun Fred Slater, said: "Rural communities are also in need of regeneration and this gives us a chance to have some of the pot, so to speak."

Members of the board met on Friday to discuss how best to move the project forward.

Hundreds of basic questionnaires have already been sent to households in the area to attract views and opinions. Around 10 to 15 per cent of households have returned them.

Issues which residents feel need addressing traffic calming schemes, open play areas and improvement of the environment.

Crime was a matter of concern for around half the residents .

The exhibitions are to be staged at around the same time that new questionnaires are to be sent out to households.

The theme of the exhibitions is to be the villages' past and present and memorabilia of the area's history will be featured.

Rachel Fleming of Rural Evaluation and Action in Lancashire (REAL) , a consultancy body which is helping members of the board achieve its aims, said she hoped the exhibitions would 'trigger' things off for people.

She said: "People will think about what their communities were like in the past, what they are like now and what they want for the future."

The Rev Marlene Wilkinson of St Paul's, Hoddlesden, said she hoped to start a craft morning at the church on October 18 at 10am and that it would serve as a "feeder' for the exhibition.

Coun Gerald Wild of Yate and Pickup parish council said: "If we spend this money wisely there will be more - if we ignore it that will be that."

Bert Clarke of Hoddlesden Millennium Green Trust said: "It's no good if things are going to be foisted upon us.

"It has to be done for the good of the village."

Coun Slater added that the grant had a possible top up of £25,000 available from the council.

The exhibitions are planned for November 10 in Pickup at Rosins and November 24 in Hoddlesden Community Centre, both exhibitions will be staged between 10am and 1pm.

It is hoped that once the final questionnaires are completed a report will be ready by January and then proposals for improvements can be put forward.

The cash is to be spent over a three year period.