72 BLACKBURN AND DARWEN
Continued from page 71
The flagship business has announced it will spend more than £30m creating a new production plant and research centre in Darwen. Town Deal money will help with some of the infrastructure that will be needed.
Wayne says: “For a town like Darwen to get £25m, the full allocation, is massive. And this is money that will be invested in Darwen, people in the town will see the benefits.
“The board has worked extremely hard over the best part of two years to get to this stage.”
The next stage is drawing up business cases for the planned schemes and it may be the autumn before the first projects start to come forward.
Wayne sees ‘town centre living’ as an important part of the mix. And he points to the positive impact of attracting people through the development of high-quality homes has had in Manchester, Liverpool and nearer to home, Preston.
He says: “We said from the very beginning that this was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Wayne Wild
“We knew from the outset that the full £25m wasn’t guaranteed and that we needed to develop a really strong bid to make sure we could secure as much money for the town as possible. That was our absolute priority. Now we can start making a difference.”
Martin Kelly believes it will. He says Town Deals have been created to deliver major impact in smaller towns like Darwen.
He talks of a “21st Century market town” and says: “Drawing up carefully developed projects enables £25m to make a real difference in a place like Darwen.”
There is certainly plenty of ambition to go along with the cash. Martin says creating a sister operation to the new Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) North West, which has just opened in Samlesbury, is also on the shopping list.
He also points out that the plan doesn’t just look at how the town centre can serve local people but how it can attract visitors from outside and become a destination. He points to the success of Hebden Bridge.
He says: “People will see real change. The magic is in unlocking some of the private and public investment that can be leveraged from the £25m.”
MOVEMENT ON ALL FRONTS
There’s a busy 12 months ahead for Blackburn as it looks to make major progress on several economic development fronts.
FACELIFT FOR SHADSWORTH
Plans have been unveiled to regenerate Blackburn’s Shadsworth housing estate.
Together Housing Group (THG) will work with estate transformation experts Place Capital Group (PCG) on a five-year improvement programme.
Built in 1953, the Shadsworth estate has more than 850 properties and is home to over 2,100 people.
The ‘place shaping’ project unveiled by housing group THG will see an “enhanced public realm”.
It will also include the construction of new homes and the remodelling of others to make them more energy efficient and “relevant to the needs of today’s and future households”.
Properties across the estate will benefit from facelifting works and the installation of renewable heat infrastructure through air source heat pumps.
PCG will deliver a major place shaping strategy across THG’s 36,000 residential property portfolio in the north of England over the next five years. Shadsworth is the first of those projects.
David Smith-Milne, Place Capital Group chief executive, says: “This is not a traditional development management contract that simply requires technical, consultancy or project management expertise to deliver a set of predetermined plans.
“At the core of this project is the need for visionary development expertise, to help THG to set a new future and vision for some of its most challenging neighbourhoods.
“We’re determined and motivated to do this alongside THG through imaginative and innovative design that is deliverable, maximises social impact and is grounded in the technical and cost realities that THG’s neighbourhoods present.”
The aim is also to leverage the strategic value of the nearby Enterprise Zone at Samlesbury, now home to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre North West and identified as the headquarters of the UK’s new National Cyber Force.
The borough is looking to formalise its Local Plan, the framework that will help drive its ambitions for the next 15 years. It includes identifying new employment land for 5,000 new jobs and 7,000 new homes.
Linked to that plan, work is also set to progress on the Blackburn Growth Axis, with its aim to deliver more than 10,000 new jobs and over £500m of private investment.
Identifying a wide range of development and job-creating opportunities, it takes in advanced manufacturing, clean technologies, new media, health, culture and housing, including a new £250m town centre development focused on bringing forward the former Thwaites and Old Market sites.
The Frontier Park logistics and industrial park at junction six of the M65 is another area the borough believes it can harness spark more investment through a ‘halo affect’.
Work will also continue to deliver investment in the Haslingden Road ‘commercial corridor’, with its vision of a ‘medipark’ project linked into the Royal Blackburn Hospital’s plans and more opportunity linked to junction five of the motorway.
The council, hospital trust and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) are involved in identifying the possibilities for the 10-acre site next to the hospital.
Martin Kelly, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s strategic director for place, says: “Part of the process is understanding what our high performing hospital requires and how we can integrate new innovation and business growth opportunities within that.”
The borough’s overall vision also includes the opportunity for the private sector to build 1,500 new homes in a ‘North Blackburn Housing Zone’. Martin says there will also be further progress on the council’s new homes plan in 2022.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
