TWO public consultation events are to be held to give people a chance to find out more about plans to improve a town centre shopping area.

Hartlepool Borough Council is proposing to spend more than £1m on upgrading York Road, between Park Road and the Burn Valley, over the next three years.

Plans include on-street lay-bys for short-stay parking, a zebra crossing, bus stops, improved footpaths and the re-surfacing of the road.

The consultation events will take place at St George's Church Hall, Park Road entrance, tomorrow, from 5pm to 7pm, and at Richard Court, in Lister Street, on Wednesday, November 23, from 10am to 11am.

The improvement scheme will be funded by Government money provided through the town's local transport plan (LTP), and it will be carried out in three phases, starting next summer and continuing in the summers of 2007 and 2008.

LTP coordinator Alec Gough said: "We hope that people living and working in this area will take the opportunity to find out more about the proposals and make their own views known. We think it is vital that they have an input into the scheme."

Phase one will take in a section of York Road, between Park Road and Lister Street, phase two will be between Lister Street and Elwick Road, and phase three will stretch from Elwick Road to the Burn Valley roundabout.

The latest proposals follow a similar scheme carried out several years ago to improve another stretch of York Road, between Victoria Road and Park Road.