BURY Art Gallery will close on December 1 for a year while a new £1.2 million museum and archive centre is built there.

Services, including some at Bury Library next door, will be moved while the Lottery-funded project is being created in the lower ground floor, which will include a lift and ramp.

The council says it needs to close the entire building on health and safety grounds, to protect exhibits from dirt, and for security reasons.

The library will remain open, although visitors may face some disruption. The council is looking to move its housebound services unit from the library's basement for six months, but has not yet chosen an alternative venue. Bosses say that this will not mean the closure of library facilities in other areas.

Councillor Siobhan Costello, executive member for community services, said: "This is a major investment in the town's cultural quarter and the new museum and archive centre will provide state-of-the-art facilities.

"It is inevitable that a project of this scale will mean disruption, but we are determined to keep people informed of developments."