Spreading word of Valley merits
ADECADE ago, David Cameron arrived in Downing Street, accompanied by his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg, to usher in an era of austerity, underpinned by what he described as ‘the big society.’
The austerity has been well documented - and keenly felt in areas like Rossendale too.
Council cuts, police cuts, real-term health cuts, real-term school cuts - no area of public life has escaped the public spending squeeze, although you’ve been in luck if you’ve dreamed about building a super-fast train between Manchester and London over the last decade.
What’s often been forgotten is the concept of the ‘big society’ - essentially local organisations - which aren’t the public sector - stepping in to run services which otherwise councils and other bodies would struggle to run.
Despite little support from government in making the Big Society a reality - immediate history surely judges it as little more than hot air - in Rossendale, the principle of moving certain organisations from council control to others does appear to be paying off.
There’s Ski Rossendale, which pre-pandemic, was announcing plans to expand and improve having accessed various pots of support which will, hopefully, help put the ski slope back on the map for many more people.
Indeed, far more than anything else here in the Valley, Ski Rossendale is the thing people who aren’t familiar with the area will have heard about.
Then there’s the Whitaker Museum, a proper jewel in Rossendale’s crown in Rawtenstall.
The Whitaker Community Interest Company was set up in 2013 to take on the running of the museum, which previously had been run by the council.
Things have gone well since then, and now a £1.9m lottery-funded transformation of the Whitaker is under way, with local firm B&E Boys doing the work too - a double win for the local economy.
The work will see the barn and stables next to the existing museum being converted to create a new cafe, exhibition and event space, along with other public facilities.
Seeing the work going ahead during lockdown has been an unexpected boost and hopefully soon it will be time for us all to play our part too: Visiting the Whitaker, and shouting about it to as many people as possible.
Indeed, perhaps too often we expect organisations to solve problems which we, as residents, could to some extent solve ourselves.
This year is bound to be the ‘year of the staycation’ and areas like the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and Lake District are all expecting a surge in visitors to their tourist hotspots.
What about a day trip to Rossendale for those living in Manchester? Scout Moor, Peel Tower, Cough Head, Cloughbridge reservoir …. So many spots locally well worth a drive out to us to find - but people need to know about them.
Yes, of course there’s more for the council to do to raise the profile of tourism in the borough - it still is baffling that more isn’t made of getting people off the steam train at Rawtenstall to go out and explore more.
But maybe word of mouth is the secret ingredient for us in the weeks and months ahead. Tell people about a great walk, a good shop or an amazing place to eat.
The Big Society might have just been political hot air, but the principle of us all piling in to make our area a success is surely something we can all buy into.