Islamic charity in talks to sell Brierfield Mills (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Islamic charity in talks to sell Brierfield Mills
6:00pm Saturday 25th September 2010 in Briercliffe
By Jon Livesey, Reporter
FOR SALE: Brierfield Mills
AN Islamic charity which owns Brierfield Mills is in talks to sell the historic site - less than a year after buying it for more than £1million.
Brian Cookson, Pendle Council’s regeneration chief, confirmed the local authority’s joint venture company Pearl2 would be interested in buying the seven-acre former Smith and Nephew site from Islamic Help, a Birmingham-based disaster relief charity.
Mr Cookson said a deal would only be struck if an ‘appropriate’ price could be agreed and confirmed discussions were ongoing.
Despite repeated attempts to contact the charity’s fundraising manager, he was unavailable for comment.
Islamic Help bought Brierfield Mills for just over £1million at the end of last year.
The charity had said it intended to use the site to house a 5,000-pupil boarding school for Muslim girls. But this was later scaled down, with plans to move just 58 Muslim girls from the Ghausia High School, in Nelson, to the site.
It also proposed a sports centre alongside a ‘commercial village’ housing start-up businesses at the site, which would become its HQ.
However, nine months have passed since those intentions were made public and there has been a lack of activity at the site.
Mr Cookson said: “We have had a number of meetings in recent months with Islamic Help and their representatives.
“We have made it clear that through its joint venture company PEARL2, the council would be interested in purchasing the mill for the purpose of regeneration, provided an appropriate price can be agreed and this discussion is ongoing.”
Clitheroe Road Residents' Association (CRRA) had opposed the school plans, claiming the facility would have been divisive.
A CRRA spokesman said: “It is Brierfield’s jewel in the crown and something that everyone sees on the approach to Pendle.
"It’s our flagship building, with the railway station at its front door and canal at its back door.
“If and when the economy recovers it will be an ideal place for redevelopment.”
Comments(21)
FREDF2009
says...
6:25pm Sat 25 Sep 10
A company which has been set up to leach money that has been allocated to tackle deprivation and social issues until it runs out. Look at the Ace Centre for example, a £6.5 million building which was supposed to revive the town centre but instead has cost the taxpayer an extra £78000.00 due to operating at a LOSS in the first year which was developed by PEARL 2 through regeneration money for Nelson Town Centre. This PEARL 2 partnership needs to be looked at in more detail as it only seems to benefit Barnfield Construction and the public is left with white elephant buildings. Mr Cookson can say all he likes but the bottom line is Nelson is a DEAD town due to the decisions being made by the previous administration and the current senior council officers and there is nothing else they can come up with to say otherwise.
time.team
says...
6:26pm Sat 25 Sep 10
-
The Tony Blair lifelike lost and the Gordon Brown lifelike won!
As an almost lifelong Labour supporter how I wish there was still a Labour Party!
duke bar
says...
6:42pm Sat 25 Sep 10
DaveBurnley
says...
6:43pm Sat 25 Sep 10
workaholic
says...
7:12pm Sat 25 Sep 10
wrinkles
says...
7:48pm Sat 25 Sep 10
The dreams of a Birmingham based disaster relief charity, Islamic Help, of establishing a 5,000 place boarding school for Muslim girls at Brierfield Mills in Pendle was shattered by the Charity Commission. The charity watchdog ruled that Islamic Help was operating outside its charitable objects in raising money for a school.
In a hard hitting decision the Charity Commission ordered donations to be returned to those who had responded to the appeal for funds.
FREDF2009
says...
7:54pm Sat 25 Sep 10
If you only knew! They are probably worse considering that PEARL & PEARL2 have been operating for the last couple of years and when you add up the amount of money that has been leached from the taxpayer which is in its millions it is nothing compared to the £2000.00 that had to be returned by Islamic Help.
skinmanbfc
says...
7:59pm Sat 25 Sep 10
duke bar
says...
9:07pm Sat 25 Sep 10
Whats wrong with this.
Lots of us do this with our cars and houses every year.
Davidoff
says...
10:24pm Sat 25 Sep 10
.
Will only be a matter of time before Big Ben, Stone Henge are bought and shipped off somewhere.
full moon
says...
11:13pm Sat 25 Sep 10
Rogi
says...
11:14pm Sat 25 Sep 10
Davidoff wrote:No - Really - Someone stole the Blackpool illuminations?
Think it all started with that bridge in London some foreigner bought and took brick for brick to their country then it was the original Blackpool Illuminations (oh, yes, even those weren't sacred) sold some time ago to go into some desert somewhere ... It can all be more or less traced backwards that brick by brick, mortar by mortar everything we had in this country is either hocked, rented, leased out to some other country ...
.
Will only be a matter of time before Big Ben, Stone Henge are bought and shipped off somewhere.
billy32
says...
10:36am Sun 26 Sep 10
Izanears
says...
10:51am Sun 26 Sep 10
Love the word appropriate!!!!! If the council displays it usual business acumen, remember, it virtually gave away the land Lomeshaye Ind Estate is built on, then I'll bet a million pounds to a pennorth o' peanuts that this will be another 'deal' that will see Pendle taxpayers out of pocket yet again!.
eddie the head
says...
3:11pm Sun 26 Sep 10
wrinkles
says...
5:06pm Sun 26 Sep 10
duke bar wrote:There's nothing wrong with that if everything is done above board and not behind a tax free concession charity whose website gives the impression (but no costings) that its sole intention is to help alleviate tragedy in foreign lands using unpaid volunteers.
Behave they bought a building and have decided to sell it.
Whats wrong with this.
Lots of us do this with our cars and houses every year.
.
Contrast the website with the statement by the purchasers of the old building that it was their intention to have a fee based boarding school specifically to teach Muslim culture to girls.
Kev
says...
8:15pm Sun 26 Sep 10
Why don't the Islamic Charity do the Charitable thing? i.e, sell the building back to a deprived community for the amount they paid for it.
It wouldn't be Islamic to make a profit on the generousity of another Community...... Would it..?
publicperson
says...
9:43am Mon 27 Sep 10
This was alway's going to happen as the charity has previous form for it. The sums just didn't add up when they put forward all their grand (divisive)ideas, and the fact that Lloyds bankrolled them in the midst of a recession spelt disaster from the start.
Having spoken with a local resident, a major factor in the opposition was the fact that this landmark building could be left to rot away, in the same manner of many of Brierfield and Nelsons heritage properties.
Imagine if Pearl2 did not want to buy the Mill. Who else in the current climate would want it? It would be a derelict monster. Islamic Help continue to embarrass the muslim community with their actions.
soup123
says...
6:59pm Mon 27 Sep 10
FREDF2009
says...
11:30pm Tue 28 Sep 10
1) A £6.3 million building with no car park and operating at a loss in its first year of £78k.
2) Approx. £1.2 million on pedestrianising Market Street for the umpteenth time creating a town centre which is completely dead.
3) The £5 million building, No. 1 Market Street which completely destroyed the hustle & bustle of the old indoor market that served Nelson for years.
4) The £2.3 million currently being spent on opening the town centre to traffic to encourage business to flourish when nearly all the shops in Nelson that used to deal in retail are boarded up!
5) £4.5 million spent on the new Bus Interchange
Now if I do my sums correctly that is £19.3 million being spent in Nelson Town Centre for improvements. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that Nelson has a failed town centre which is completely dead due to mistake after mistake being made by senior officers of the council and PEARL2.
So who is being naive now?
duke bar says...
6:09pm Sat 25 Sep 10
Its a fine building.