BURNLEY aims to harness the white heat of new technology with £3.5million schemes to bring high quality, well-paid jobs to the area.

The town hopes to win £1.5million Euro and North West Development agency cash to build a 25,000 sq ft Technology Centre on the Shuttleworth Mead business park -- a project which will create 77 jobs and equip dozens of small firms with training and expertise in advanced manufacturing techniques to help them expand.

The centre will focus on attracting small and start-up firms in the advanced aerospace engineering and computer services, software and internet sectors.

The centre would link directly with a £2million Technology and Innovation Programme project to assist nearly 300 small firms and create 86 jobs over the next four years.

The project is designed to complement existing packages of support and target help on companies which have high growth potential and will generate and sustain high quality, well-paid jobs in Burnley.

Burnley is hoping to win a total of £1.1million of European Regional Development Fund backing for the two schemes.

The projects will be carried forward to the bidding round by Blackburn with Darwen Council, which is co-ordinating the submission of an East Lancashire-wide Action Plan for Euro funding.

Town Hall spokesman Alison Ashcroft said the Action Plan had to be submitted to the Government by July 1, with a final decision coming in late September.

If approval is granted, work on the new technology centre could start by the end of the year.