Councillor Clare Cleary

Cabinet member for housing

I CARE passionately about the future of Hyndburn and its regeneration has always been right at the heart of the cabinet’s plans since we took control of the council in 2011.

Our focus remains firmly on employment and housing growth as we continue to work hard to attract new businesses and support the development of new, high quality housing here.

It’s true that times are hard for many town centres as traditional retailers struggle to compete with internet shopping and out of town retail centres but, despite these challenges, we’ll carry on working for the evolution and redevelopment of Accrington town centre.

These are exciting times as work to create the new, high-quality public square, which will pay tribute to the sacrifice of the Accrington Pals, is set to begin within weeks.

We’re working with landowners and house builders to support the development of new housing, especially on brownfield land.

At the same time we’re leading the way to bring empty homes back into use and our innovative, award-winning partnership with developer PlaceFirst has seen almost 100 empty homes in the Woodnook area of West Accrington restored and brought back into use. It doesn’t stop there – 28 more refurbs are due soon, with another 104 houses set to be facelifted over the next two years.

We’ve also worked with PlaceFirst to create high quality open spaces at Booth Street and Priestly Nook for the whole neighbourhood to enjoy.

Our partnership working with developers and land owners will see the building of 217 new family homes and bungalows starting soon at Lyndon Park in Great Harwood and Great Harwood Football Club will benefit from modern playing and changing facilities too.

Rishton has 75 new houses being built by Gleeson Homes at Parker Place. 103 properties on Spring Street, Rishton will be facelifted soon, which will in turn make the whole area more viable for developers.

Gleeson Homes has also secured planning approval at Church Bank Works to build 48 new homes, with work due to start soon.

Huncoat was awarded Housing Zone Status and our partnership working with the Homes and Communities Agency and Lancashire County Council has resulted in us securing £247,000, which we’ll use to develop a master plan for this area, which hopefully will lead to the building of a key employment site and several thousand new homes built in the borough over the next decade.

We’re appointing a housing zone project manager soon to begin this crucial piece of work.

Also in Huncoat, a small site at Yorkshire Street is looking to benefit from the HCA’s Rent to Buy funding for 15 houses.

We also plan to bid into the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Funding pot of £2.3bn to help us unlock some of the most difficult sites to develop. The council has facilitated the development of the Whitebirk Estate, which could see the development of a mixed employment site, with a hotel, petrol station and restaurant attracting significant private investment and creating up to 2,000 jobs.

We care deeply about the borough, as you’ll see there is a lot going on to bring in investment and rejuvenate Hyndburn, but inevitably long-term plans need time to come to fruition.