Leader welcomes Bacup bid progress

The leader of Rossendale Council has welcomed progress on Bacup’s multi-million pound bid to improve the town centre.

At tonight’s Cabinet, councillors will receive a report outlining progress on the bid and some very initial concept ideas for the town.

Bacup is in the running for Future High Streets funding and council officers are working closely with councillors, community groups, residents and businesses to put together a credible bid to government.

The ambitions, outlined in the Bacup 2040 Vision and Masterplan, have already been shaped by residents and businesses after the Council undertook one of its largest ever consultation. Hundreds of residents and businesses took part in the survey.

The vision and masterplan, which have been worked on since 2018 following the end of the Townscape Heritage Initiative project, are not final proposals but ambitions on how Bacup could look in the future.

Councillor Alyson Barnes said:

“There has been lots of work going on to put together a credible bid that is supported by the community and businesses. At the moment, officers are hard at work getting everything together so we have the best possible bid as the competition is fierce. It’s a big focus at the moment as we need the funding to help realise this exciting vision for the town.

“The ideas in the vision and masterplan are ambitions and as we go through the process the details could be tweaked here and there to produce detailed proposals which would be subjected to the usual consultation and business cases.

“It’s an exciting time for Bacup. We have achieved lots already and I believe if we can all be united behind the bid we will be in a very strong position to be successful.”

The Bacup Vision and Masterplan 2040 is being overseen by a board made up of every known community group, business representatives and service providers in Bacup, local councillors and Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry.