School students and staff are to be involved in the spending of £208,000 lottery cash which will be pumped into a major revamp of Keighley's Cliffe Castle museum in time for the new Millennium.

A major element of the project, to turn the museum into the premier centre exploring the natural and historical heritage of the Aire valley, will be its educational role.

Bradford Council has won a £208,000 national lottery grant to fund the project and also a £35,000 hand-out pledged from the Keighley Single Regeneration Budget.

Friends of Cliffe Castle have offered £6,000 and £4,000 is also coming from Cliffe Castle trustees.

Officers are awaiting confirmation of an £88,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, which provides cash for the improvement of museums and galleries. It is expected later this month.

Community backing has also come from Keighley Business Forum and Hockaday Productions, a broadcasting and communications company based in Mytholmroyd, the Yorkshire and Humberside Museums Council and Yorkshire Tourist Board.

Bradford Council bosses hope the major investment will boost the number of visitors to the museum by between 5,000 and 10,000. At present it attracts about 90,000 a year.

Steve Kerry, City Hall's principal officer for arts and museums, said: "A crucial element of the project is to involve schools and the community. We will be working with schools and I have a meeting with people at Greenhead Grammar School to talk about ways the school can be directly involved.''

Schools would also be involved in the bid for more lottery cash from the heritage pot, which would pay for someone to work both in the museum's new educational wing and out in the community, developing outreach programmes connected with the historic and natural landscape.

The aim is to create two new display galleries with better access for people in wheelchairs, and the provision of a braille and audio loop to help people with sight and hearing problems.

Major new elements will be the use of new technology including CD-ROM to enable people to access even more of the museum's collection and provision for people to handle and explore the exhibits, rather than keeping them out of touch behind glass.

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