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HOTSPOT CENTRAL LANCASHIRE
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Leyland’s new town centre plan
Jennifer Gadsdon explains the one thing that became clear when she and her fellow Leyland Town Deal board members started their work. Where was its identity?
The government Towns Fund cash of up to £25million that Leyland is now to receive will go some way to answering that question, giving the famous Lancashire town its identity back by creating a new beating heart.
The cash award follows a funding bid submission made back in October 2020 by the board, chaired by Jennifer, who is a partner in Lancashire law firm Birchall Blackburn.
She says: “This is a fantastic opportunity, a once-in-a-generation chance to change the face of the town.”
Leyland became globally famous as the home of the motor giant that shared its name. Generations of local people have worked in the automotive industry building buses and commercial vehicles and Leyland Trucks still has a major manufacturing plant today.
Jennifer says: “The town always had a big identity with Leyland Motors but over the years it struggled to find a place really. We came up with the idea of giving Leyland its identity back.
“It was felt that the lack of a clear centre and no distinct sense of purpose meant that Leyland wasn’t fulfilling its potential.”
Central to the board’s vision is the creation of a new town centre – a hub for local people, a place that would attract workers and something Leyland could be proud of.
This is a fantastic opportunity, a once- in-a-generation
chance to change the face of the town
The radical revamp has at its heart a new market square on the site of the existing market car park.
A “focal point” for the town centre, it will incorporate a new building to define the revamped area, potentially with bars and restaurants on the ground floor – to develop the night-time economy – and apartments above.
Public realm improvements, including a ‘shared space’ street design and better connectivity
between the town centre and its rail station are also part of the plan.
Leyland’s market will also be transformed, with a refurbishment, upgrade and expansion to grow its “presence and perception” in the town centre. There are plans for new stalls to create a wider food and drink offering.
The regeneration blueprint includes a Business Advisory, Skills and Enterprise (BASE) hub. It will be built on the site of the Iddons factory, next to the market car park.
It would include flexible meeting and events space, along with a café that could be converted into a bar during the evening. Units would be provided for new and existing small businesses, plus a “digital literacy” area for skills training and a proposed recording studio.
The proposals have added importance because of the role they will play post-Covid as Leyland looks to build back from the pandemic.
Jennifer says the aim is “to make the town a place, not just where people want to live, but where they want to work.”
Like many of Lancashire’s smaller towns, Leyland is competing not just with neighbouring
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