HOTSPOT BLACKBURN AND DARWEN
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
By Ged Henderson
PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT
Wayne Wild pulls no punches when he talks about the impact the £25m Darwen Town Deal will have on a part of east Lancashire already “punching above its weight”.
Darwen will use the funding to underpin its ambitious £116m investment plan which aims to generate and safeguard more than 600 jobs and create or assist more than 200 businesses.
“It will be truly transformational,” says Wayne, who chairs the board that has secured the cash.
He adds: “Given the size of Darwen, we are clearly punching well above our economic weight to have secured the maximum amount of government funding available.”
Town Deals have been seen as part of the government’s levelling up agenda, aimed at communities that have long been in the shadows. In many ways Darwen fits that description despite being home to a number of innovative, leading businesses.
At a Lancashire Business View conference on property and regeneration earlier this year Martin Kelly, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s director of growth and development, said the town had been “unloved by many for many years”.
We said from the
very beginning that this was an once-in-a- lifetime opportunity
Jake Berry, a member of the deal board, also summed up the feeling of many locals when the bid was submitted last January. The local MP spoke of a “collective feeling that our town was being left behind, overlooked for investment in favour of bigger, neighbouring towns and cities”.
That is now all set to change. The bid the board sent to the government identified a host of projects to improve the town, including restoring its Victorian market, creating a new food hall and ‘makers market,’ to attract visitors.
The vision also includes upgrading Darwen’s theatre and library, improving its ‘gateways’ and the links between the town, its parks and the surrounding moorlands.
There are plans for new employment sites to support new jobs, a ‘box park’ for business start-ups, town centre living projects and ultra- fast broadband.
The funding will be used to progress ‘quick win’ projects that are already underway, including the creation of an urban sports village.
The deal has also secured a big early economic win. It will help support Perspex International’s planned investment in new facilities in the town, safeguarding more than 250 high quality jobs.
Continued on page 72
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