This week I wanted to pay special attention to the biggest improvement Burnley town centre has seen for many decade – the official opening of Pioneer Place, which is due to have everything open in just a week’s time!
A brand new £24 million retail and leisure complex in Burnley town centre, with state-of-the-art Reel cinema, it is going to transform that part of town. Flanked by food outlets and the wide variety of independent shops we have around Curzon/Standish Street, it will help pull more people into the town centre and show Burnley for the attractive place we know it is.
For years a plan of this magnitude has sat on the shelf gathering dust; lacking the political will, or the finances required, to get it off the ground. But not any longer. By putting politics aside, and working for the betterment of our time, everyone was brought together with one common goal. Lancashire County Council put in millions of pounds of funding itself, recognising the benefits this could bring to all East Lancashire. Government was convinced of the benefits too, offering close to £4m of direct cash investment from the ‘Getting Building Fund’ – on top of all the investment coming in from the Levelling Up Fund. And, recognising that to make this affordable for Burnley Borough Council the cost of borrowing had to come down, Government worked constructively with me on this too.
The results of this are clear to see. We finally have a regenerated site, fit for the 21st century, which is financially sustainable in the long term, and which major businesses are wanting to move to.
But this is only part of the strategy. The site fits into a wider plan to level up our borough, with a new university campus at one end (currently taking shape on Westgate), and the Football Club (back in the Premiership where we belong) at the other. Both are within walking distance of the town centre and the improvements being made at each end, and in the centre, will increase the footprint and footfall dramatically.
With the move to greater use of online for retail, the town centre can’t survive without a strong leisure offer too. Now we have that. And it will mean the retail units we have, including the huge number of small independent shops, will benefit from that extra number of people who are brought in. I’d encourage everybody to take a trip down and see for themselves. You won’t be disappointed.
