An action plan is being drawn up to revitalise Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike's "economically weak and deteriorating" town centres.

A Council report claims both towns have a poor image and are struggling to compete with larger centres like Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield.

Councillors and traders believe the towns' empty shops, crime rates and lack of closed-circuit television coverage are keeping away customers and retailers.

Now Kirklees Council is looking stop the decline by improving the town's streets and market places and promoting them as venues for shopping.

A draft report suggests work in Heckmondwike should include revamping the town's covered and open markets, improve the stone paving, lighting and sign posting and target unattractive shops facing the Market Place clock.

It also calls for Cleckheaton's open market to be moved from the back of the covered market to a more prominent location, improvements to the street scene in Greenside and stone cleaning to be launched to improve the image of the town.

The Council is looking to fund the project through a Local Public Service Agreement with the Government. Under the scheme the Government will give the council an initial grant of around £100,000 to get the project started but the majority of the cash will be borrowed by the council.

However if the scheme is judged to be successful after three years the Government will then pay a reward grant to the authority covering the costs of the entire project.

It will be discussed by the Spen Valley Area Committee at Cleckheaton Town Hall on Tuesday, November 2, at 7.30pm.

The move has been welcomed by the president of the Spenborough Chamber of Trade Keith Joplin.

He said: "We realised in Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike in particular there has been a decline in the number of tenants in shops and in the general ambience of the town.

"We have seen an increase in crime not just petty crime but some major incidents in Cleckheaton with shops being ram raided but we are addressing that with CCTV being installed at the end of the year.

"To bring investment into the towns we need to make them more attractive. If the council can find the initial investment to make the towns look and feel more prosperous then I can sell it to retailers."

Councillor David Sheard (Lab, Heckmondwike) said action was needed to halt the decline of the two towns. He said: "I am worried that they we will just get some tarted up pavement and a bit of new street furniture. We need more radical action. We are not going to change people's shopping habits so we need to find new roles for the towns. Heckmondwike is only place in the area which has a green in its centre. I would like to see more use made of it."

Coun Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem, Cleckheaton) said the agreement would help the council spend hundreds of thousands improving the two towns. She said the success of Cleckheaton's farmers and continental markets proves customers enjoy shopping in small market towns.