Historic Bacup police station could be turned into five homes (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Historic Bacup police station could be turned into five homes
2:00pm Friday 2nd November 2012 in News
By Chris Adams
Bacup's police station
PART of Bacup’s historic former police station could be knocked down if plans to turn it into housing are approved.
The Bank Street building, which rose to fame after it was used for the TV series Juliet Bravo, was sold to Character Building (NW) Ltd in July.
In a separate move, Lancashire Police has submitted its plans to set up a new town centre base in Union Street.
The authority moved its staff out of Bank Street after dry rot was discovered in October 2010.
It fetched £110,000 at auction and new owners Lesley Herman and Paul Masselis want to create five terraced houses on the site, which was originally constructed in 1857.
Two flat-roof single storey extensions at the rear of the building will be demolished to make way for a garden area, but the front of the houses will remain largely the same.
Ms Herman said she wanted her residential development to “be part of the regeneration of Bacup”. Rossendale Civic Trust secretary Kathy Fishwick was “generally positive”, saying: “It needs attention to detail but they’re not tinkering with the windows and they’re not knocking any holes in it.
“As an individual scheme I am broadly supportive of it but we need to look at a ‘masterplan’ in the wider context of that part of Bacup, which includes the Market Hall.
“These proposals seem quite reasonable.”
The new Union Street base has been the subject of controversy with its opening being delayed by the council’s policy on external shutters.
The latest application is to change the use of the building from “retail unit to neighbourhood policing base”.
Greensclough Councillor Barbara Ashworth said: “It’s certainly good news for the area to be a step closer to having that police presence again.”
The station would be open from 6am to midnight every day.
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Comments (1)
12:56pm Sun 11 Nov 12
RossendaleKnight says...
Plus, these people have obviously done no research on whether housing would be good there. Who will buy them? No-one who can afford to buy one of these properties, will want to live in Bacup town centre until the police actually do their job and clean up the town of its' anti-social behaviour problems. So they will end up being rented out to drunks and addicts (a lot of them in Bacup) who will wreck them and cause a nuisance for everyone in the area.
As for Kathy Fishwick's opinion (much as I applaud the work she does) - what on earth has it got to do with her? They call themselves Rossendale Civic Trust -but they only do things for, and concentrate their efforts on things in Rawtenstall. We have our own groups in Bacup who's opinions should be heard above hers.
As a member of Bacup Pride AND Bacup Traders Association, I note that the developers have in no way attempted to come to the groups and residents of the town to find out their opinions! I wonder why?