A CRUCIAL milestone has been reached in the wholesale redevelopment of Rawtenstall town centre regarding its revolving around a long-awaited new bus station.

Councillors have provisionally accepted £6million from various sources, including their authority’s own borrowing, for the public transport interchange.

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And it has been confirmed that the main tenant for what remains of the Old Town Hall, in Bacup Road, will be Together Housing, the parent company of Green Vale Homes, which manages the borough’s former council housing stock.

Council bosses will provide £848,000 of borrowed funds, which they intend to recoup from Together Housing with over the course of a 25-year lease.

Cllr Alyson Barnes, leader of Rossendale Council, said: “This is an important stage in the redevelopment of Rawtenstall town centre with our partners.”

Under the Old Town Hall plans, which will see a newer annexe demolished, £400,000 will be used from a £1.9m Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) grant, approved by their board in June.

The bulk of the funding for the bus station, which has been discussed over several years and different town hall administrations, will come from a £3.5m allocation from Lancashire County Council.

Another £512,000 is being supplied by the county council to cover the ongoing maintenance costs associated with the interchange over the next 25 years.

Rossendale’sCouncil chief executive, Stuart Sugarman, said in a report that the second phase of the project development, known as Spinning Point, which will focus on the retail, leisure and housing elements of the interchange, will be consulted upon into next year during 2016/17.

He said: “The vision for the Spinning Point development is based on preserving the heritage of the existing space while creating a vibrant town centre which will deliver jobs and support business growth.”

The only outstanding decision then required would be the formal release of the county council funding, which is scheduled to be completed next Thursday on July 14, subject to any official challenge being made.

Town campaigners, including Rossendale Civic Trust and The Friends of Rawtenstall, have voiced repeated concerns about regarding the design of the bus station and the effects on the Old Town Hall.

The scheme has been drawn up by the Rossendale Together Barnfield partnership and if everything proceeds as planned, hoardings will be erected around the former Valley Centre square during August.

Once construction is completed, it is expected that the new bus station will be open for business by the summer of 2018.

Other buildings due to be bulldozed by the developers include the former Rawtenstall police station and the old One Stop Shop buildings and offices.