Ledbury town centre is to get a £28,500 facelift, thanks a grant from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

The £14,250 windfall will be matched pound for pound with funding from Herefordshire Council, the Town Council, Ledbury in Bloom and the Chamber of Commerce Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

The Town Council is putting a further £1,000 into the pot, having already provided £1,000 for the new Millennium Garden.

Town manager Carl Jones said: "It's a great partnership. It shows that partnerships work in gaining access to pots of money which otherwise would not be available."

Under the terms of the rural development grant, the money must be spent by March 2001.

It will help fund projects including an ornamental lighting scheme in the Southend, improved traffic, town and tourism signage, new notice boards and further development of the Millennium Garden at the entrance to Bye Street car park.

A key factor in securing the grant was an action plan drawn up by Ledbury Town Centre Forum.

Mr Jones said: "It's the action plan which has helped to draw the funding to prioritised projects."

Mr Jones helped to facilitate the drawing up of the plan, which is set to be published in the next few weeks.

Much of the plan came about following the response to questionnaires handed out to traders, residents and shoppers.

The new signs will cover a wide range of areas, from directions to public toilets and the town centre, through to those directing lorries to the bypass. There will also be signs to stress the fact that, under bylaws, Ledbury town centre is a no drinking area.

There will be a tourist information point at Tesco and the railway station and another in the town centre itself.

The ornamental lighting scheme in The Southend will help to illuminate and enhance one of the poorer-lit areas of the town centre, where vandalism has taken place in recent times.

Ledbury's mayor, Coun Clive Jupp, welcomed the full enhancement scheme and said it was a way to tackle "a whole round up of little niggles".