Bacup’s Future High Streets Fund bid success

Rossendale Council has welcomed news that Bacup has been included in an expanded list of towns that have progressed in a bid to benefit from the Government’s £1 billion Future High Streets Fund.

The Council has made improving the borough’s town centres its number one economic development strategy priority.

Following this decision, time and resources have been concentrated to try to bring much needed new investment in.

Rossendale Council submitted a funding bid in March following the development of an exciting new vision for the future of the town centre: Bacup 2040

The masterplan will be the blueprint for future funding bids in the next few years in the town centre.

Bacup, along with the other successful candidates, will now progress to the second phase of the Future High Streets Fund and receive up to £150k to support the development of detailed project proposals that can be submitted for capital funding.

Over 400 applications were made for this funding and the Bacup bid is one of only 100 selected.

Councillor Andrew Walmsley, Portfolio Holder for Resources, said:

We welcome the news, we always believed our bid was a strong one. We are pleased that the plans that have been developed following extensive consultation with businesses, landlords, community groups and residents feedback can now be developed into a costed business plan. This will be submitted in early 2020.

The Bacup bid will be assessed again at this stage which will once again be a competitive process with only the strongest bids awarded up to £20 million. We will be consulting further with stakeholders and residents in the coming months to ensure that the Bacup 2040 Vision receives strong community support and that the best possible bid is submitted.

A lot of time and effort went into developing the bid and, whilst it was submitted by the Council, it was developed with the community of Bacup. I want to thank officers, residents, businesses and community groups for their effort in putting it together.

An additional first stage bid that links to the Bacup 2040 Vision has been made for Heritage Action Zone funding that will focus on buildings that did not benefit from the recent THI project, including Market Street, Burnley Road and St James Square. If successful this would be in addition to the Future High Streets Fund.

The Council’s Economic Development Team will be leading on the business case application and further updates will be provided.