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HOTSPOT PENDLE
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
TALK OF THE TOWNS By Ged Henderson
Nelson town centre
Our road trip around Lancashire’s hotspots has taken us to Pendle. We’ve spoken to business, education and local government representatives to find out the issues they and the borough are facing
If anyone was unsure about what Nelson’s £25m Towns Fund deal is aiming to deliver, the title given to one of its projects makes it crystal clear.
‘Revitalising Nelson’ is designed to bring high profile and long-term vacant and under-used buildings in the former mill town back into use for residential and commercial purposes.
It sits alongside other ambitious plans aimed at reviving the Pendle town, including a £730,000 ‘This is Nelson’ arts and culture project. A £2.29m investment proposal for an Advanced Digital Skills Academy in the town has also been given the green light.
Nelson isn’t the only town in Pendle that is the focus of such attention. A long-term project to guide future regeneration into Colne, Barnoldswick and Earby over the next ten to 15 years got underway last October. Masterplans are being prepared to create a vision for each of the three towns.
Meanwhile, the £6.5m that Pendle received from round one of the government’s Levelling
Up Fund will be used to boost Colne town centre. It includes plans for a heritage quarter and the redevelopment of the town’s market.
Litte wonder Pendle’s chief executive Rose Rouse says this is “an exciting time” for the borough. She adds: “When I first came here quite a few people said to me, ‘the problem with Pendle is it’s not a real place, it’s a collection of different things.
“I decided to turn that on its head and look at it in a totally different way and I actually see Pendle as a ‘charm bracelet’ with all these jewels and charms on it.
“Those charms could be its towns and villages, they could be the history and heritage, they could be things like the college and some of the other really good anchor institutions.
“Then there’s the culture, all the different people that we’ve got living here, all the exciting, slightly quirky things that actually happen here, the witches, all of that sort of stuff.
“If you look at it that way you see that lovely
characterful place.” She adds: “The towns are really important jewels on that bracelet, and we’re putting a lot of focus into Nelson through the Town Deal and into Colne through the levelling up agenda.
“We’ve just been looking at masterplans for the West Craven part of the borough and we’re going to be focusing on areas like Brierfield too. We are really keen to progress on all of these fronts.”
Chris Smith is managing director of Nelson based Pendle Engineering. He sees having the name ‘Pendle’ in the titles of his businesses as a major positive.
Chris says: “We’re proud to have been in Nelson since the late 1980s, so obviously we’ve seen a lot of change in that time, but a lot of things remain the same - grit, determination, ability”.
He adds: “As an employer, we’re trying to draw people in. Pendle’s a net exporter of talent. We’ve got a hill which we talk about all the time, but we’ve got to talk about more than that to draw people to come and work within the town.”
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