On a upward trajectory

FOR many a year, if someone asked where you were from and you said ‘Rossendale’ it was highly likely they’d ask you if you lived near the ski slope.

The group which now runs the famous slope in Rawtenstall is now hopeful of putting the centre on the map for even more winter sports enthusiasts as it continues to go from strength to strength as a social enterprise.

Plans to spend £500k on facilities to attract people looking for somewhere to train for freestyle ski and snowboarding have been approved by council planners. That’s on top of £600k being spent to redevelop teaching and family slopes at Ski Rossendale. And as a result, it could be that Olympic athletes will be training in Rossendale ahead of the next Winter Olympics in 2018.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a facility which looked to be going out of fashion just a few years ago. Indeed, in 2011, the ski slope shut, before the social enterprise now responsible for it won the tender to take it over.

It’s also proof that when communities pull together, great things can happen. We’re seeing that with the Whitaker Museum in Rawtenstall – also handed over by the council as cuts in funding hit – and I’m sure we’ll see the same with the community groups now taking over libraries and community centres elsewhere in the Valley.

Let’s hope we soon see action on other facilities at risk, including several libraries and, of course, that other famous tourism attraction in Rossendale, Helmshore Textile Museum.