Could focus on night-time economy put town centre in the picture-s?

Keeping a close eye on life in the Valley

THE next phase of the redevelopment of Rawtenstall town centre will focus on a night-time economy, the councillor with responsibility for tourism, Coun Andy McNae, announced last week.

There will always be those who are sceptical about such a proposal because it seems quite farfetched, but there are many reasons to be optimistic about it.

Would someone living in Ramsbottom, say 15 years ago, have expected it to develop the way it has, as a place people travel to for an evening out or a few drinks at the weekend?

Sometimes, it takes a bold statement and vision and then a determination to make it happen to really change an area for the better – just look at Blackburn and Accrington.

For over a decade, councillors in Accrington insisted the town would get a cinema, even when the odds were stacked against any company moving away from their out-of-town complexes back into a town centre, but it happened in the end.

The cinema hasn’t been without its ups and downs since – it has changed hands – but Accrington now has a national chain cinema which many thought would never happen.

In Blackburn, the transformation of the town’s market from an out-of- date, dark, shambling building into part of the main shopping centre has helped to make it an attractive place to go to again.

The developments growing up around the cathedral give it a new sense of optimism.

So I’m encouraged that Rossendale council is making bold statements about wanting to create a night-time economy in Rawtenstall, and also encouraged by the things they are talking about within that economy because they are things many people have been suggesting for a good while. Things like a cinema. Could Rossendale sustain a cinema in this day and age?

You’d assume at first that no, it couldn’t.

Accrington and Bury both have Vue cinemas, but could it find another niche in the market?

It’s worth remembering that Longridge, a town much smaller than Rawtenstall, and close to Preston with its two cinemas, sustains a singlescreen cinema in the heart of its town centre.

There is also talk of more places to go in the evening.

On this front, Rawtenstall is surely already making progress.

We’ve seen new restaurants open in the last couple of years, such as the Firepit, while the new micro pub on Bank Street always seems to be bursting at the seams of a weekend.

It’s not that many years ago that Rawtenstall was a place where a lot of people went for a night out.

You only have to look at the Time Trip pages to see happy faces enjoying nights out not that long ago. Towns up and down the country have suffered a decline in night-time activity – Blackburn and Burnley are both great examples of where once busy nighttime streets are often deserted.

Just having pubs isn’t enough any more, as Ramsbottom is proving.

It needs a mix of things, with restaurants at the heart, and something like a cinema.

It seems a long way off, but with the right support and momentum it can happen.

Rossendale council’s first job is to convince would-be businesses that there is such a demand, and pushing forward the ideas that people have shared with them is a good place to start.