COMMUNITIES across East Lancashire are set to benefit from the installation of new alley gates.

The lockable gates help to prevent burglary, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

Blackburn Council has approved funding for eight sets of alley gates in Blackburn and four in Darwen.

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Several alleygate schemes have also been applied for across Burnley by community safety chiefs in the borough over the past few weeks.

Plans have been lodged for the rear of Grange Street, Colbran Street and Albion Street, all in Burnley, and Padiham’s Spenser Street, Shakespeare Street and Victoria Road.

Burnley Council official Richard Brown said that the applications have each been made in areas where crime figures and anti-social behaviour proved they were required.

Residents will be given keys, for each of the schemes, and utility companies and refuse services will also have access to the areas.

In Blackburn the gates will be installed in Wellfield Road in Corporation Park, Bromley Street, Palatine Road,Grindleton Road and Saunders Road in Wensley Fold, Millham Street, Earl Street, and Ribble Street in Bastwell, Whalley New Road and Brooklands Terrace in Little Harwood, Wellfield Road in Corporation Park, Lincoln Road, Ripon Street and Nottingham Street in Audley, and Randolph Street and Edith Street in Queens Park. In Darwen, the areas are Higher Perry Street, Olive Lane, Norris Street, Garnett Street, Portland Street, Maria Street, and Black-burn Road.

Bastwell councillor Shaukat Hussain said: “We’ve been campaigning for this for a few years.

Councillor Yusuf Jan-Virmani, executive member for Neigh-bourhoods, Housing & Customer services, said: “To avoid inevitable disappointment given the number of applications the council had already received by the early part of this year, the ‘Gate It’ scheme has been closed to new applications.”