Coun Alyson Barnes
THERE’S been a lot of talk in the press and on TV over the past few months about the Levelling Up Fund (LUF).
This fund is designed to
invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK and we want to make sure that Rossendale gets its fair share.
Our bid is a critical first phase of a larger and more ambitious strategy to transform our local economy.
Fundamentally, too many of our residents go out of the borough for work, the borough needs better paid jobs to evolve into a stronger, more self-contained local economy.
We are almost ready to submit our bid and have identified projects which match council priorities and have the best chance of success when scored against the LUF criteria.
They are town centres and heritage, skills and enterprise, and transport.
We want to look at further development of both Bacup and Rawtenstall markets and town centre connections.
We want improvements and a planned programme of events to draw people in, generate excitement and increase footfall, along with good public spaces and way marking extending into the town centres creating wider opportunities for new jobs, enterprise and regeneration.
Haslingden is located outside Rossendale’s LUF boundary, but agreement has been reached that efforts will be made for Haslingden Town Centre to feature in the borough’s Shared Prosperity Fund opportunity.
We also want to develop a Skills and Employability Centre in Rawtenstall’s renovated Old Town Hall.
The centre will have direct links with local employers and will focus on providing relevant skills directly to those Rossendale residents who have often missed out on opportunities, so that they too will benefit from the local employment planned for the borough.
Finally, we’re looking at our transport infrastructure.
Anyone coming into, going out of or just generally moving about the borough, will know just how congested the gyratory system in Rawtenstall can be, so addressing this is a major aim.
Over three-quarters of the borough’s population live in three main towns and the roads connecting these all meet at that single point.
The junction is already congested and will become a barrier to investment in the near future if we don’t get it sorted out.
The growth in housing and employment over the next few years will not be possible unless the capacity is increased.
The bid needs to be submitted by mid-July, and further details of the final bid submission will be released shortly.
I also want to thank all of you that took part in our recent residents’ survey.
The last survey we carried out was in 2019; it’s important that we regularly gather your views to gain a better understanding of what we’re doing right and most importantly where we can make improvements.
The feedback we get lets us know what is most important to you and how and where we can improve our services with the limited funding we receive.
Fly-tipping is an issue for all councils and is something which was highlighted as a concern in the survey, with 70 per cent of respondents considering it to be an issue locally. The council launched Operation Trident last year to tackle fly-tipping and environmental crime, and we have so far cleared over 1,700 fly-tips and issued over 35 fixed penalty notices totalling over £12,500 - but we can and will do more.
It was encouraging to see that more people were satisfied than dissatisfied with the council overall and that most council employees were considered helpful, courteous and pleasant to deal with.
As ever I am always here to help and if you would like to speak to me about any issue that is concerning you, please get in touch by ringing 01706 217 819 or email me at alysonbarnes@
rossendalebc.gov.uk.