BLIND campaigner Frank Parkinson is "over the moon" after being promised Atherton town centre is to be made more user-friendly.

Access for the disabled champion Frank, 61, of Birch Street, Tyldesley, is totally blind and has for years been battling for more dropped tactile kerbs to be installed at the junction of Bolton Road, York Street and the High Street.

The kerbs will be installed over the next few months as part of the new Leigh and Bolton Quality Bus corridor -- a free-flow route designed to speed up buses travelling between the two towns.

Frank, Wigan's "Citizen of the Month" in February 2000 and a member of Wigan Metro's Access for the Disabled Committee, had been on the verge of launching a campaign to have the kerbs installed.

He said: "I have been trying to get the dropped tactile kerbs on that corner for years. There are no dropped kerbs around Atherton town hall. I've been trying for two years."

Frank, whose wife Pat, 68, was left half-paralysed after a stroke 25 years ago, said: " I represent all disabled people and I don't just mean people in wheelchairs but people who are deaf and blind.

"These kerbs will also help the elderly with their shopping and people with pushchairs. We don't want these kerbs put in for selfish reasons -- they are for everyone."

However, Frank feels the improvements are long overdue.

He said: "I am over the moon the dropped tactile kerbs are being put in, but Atherton town hall was made fully accessible for disabled people some years ago. The dropped tactile kerbs should have been put in when the hall was made accessible. We should not have to wait another few months."

Frank also believes an accessible route for disabled people should be made from Atherton railway station to the town centre.

A Wigan Council spokesman said they were not able to put the special kerbs in immediately, they would be installed as part of a co-ordinated plan.