High-tech East Lancs business park plans unveiled (From Lancashire Telegraph)

High-tech East Lancs business park plans unveiled

9:10am Tuesday 23rd February 2010 in

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A NEW ‘high-tech’ business park employing 4,000 people is set to be built beside the M65.

Regeneration leaders want to turn greenfield land on the Oswaldtwistle and Blackburn border, next to junction six of the M65, into a £5million industrial hub occupied by advanced manufacturing firms.

They hope the site, to be built over five years, will attract blue-chip employers to East Lancashire and create 4,000 quality jobs.

The plan, which will be partly bankrolled with public money, has been backed by business leaders.

Bosses from Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, the publicly-funded body made up of councillors and town hall officers, want the sprawling business park to go on the area between Accrington Road, Whitebirk Road and the M65 eastbound exit slip-road.

A developer for the scheme could be appointed as early as this summer, with building work started early next year and completed in phases.

Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Mike Lee said: “This is absolutely vital to Blackburn, Hyndburn and the whole of East Lancashire.

“We need to bring in high quality jobs to the area to give our young people something to aspire to."

Coun Lee said the site would employ people from every part of East Lancashire.

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "I welcome any initiative that will bring investment in the area in future.

"This would bring in skilled, highly-paid jobs and would undoutbedly benefit people in Hyndburn and Blackburn."

Regeneration bosses believe the site’s transport links will help to lure blue-chip names to the business park.

As well as being beside the M65, the Whitebirk hub would be on the long-awaited Pennine Reach bus route which is planned to link Darwen to Accrington via Blackburn.

However, previously-floated plans to build a new railway station in the area have been mothballed.

Graham Burgess, Blackburn with Darwen Council chief executive, who sits on the Regenerate Pennine Lancashire board, said: “These will be high quality jobs and they will add value to the whole of the Pennine Lancashire area.

“Other business parks in Blackburn are filling up nicely so I am confident this will work.”

Officials at Regenerate Pennine Lancashire are currently drawing up the organisation’s business plan after they were handed up to £200million late last year.

The funding, which replaces cash injections from the North West Development Agency to individual boroughs, is due to be spent on business, education, transport and housing priorities.

After the business plan is finalised, possibly next month, bosses then hope to advertise and appoint a developer, possibly as early as June.

The new Whitebirk business zone would then be developed over several phases and over five years, eventually employing 4,000 people.

It is understood that town hall officers believe they will have few problems developing the land, which is partly owned by Blackburn with Darwen Council and partly privately-owned.

Mike Damms, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said: “There is no doubt whatsoever that more space for high-tech manufacturers is something we need more and more of.

“Creating 4,000 new jobs is far from pie in the sky but if we do not provide the premises, the companies will not come.”

North West Development Agency chief executive Steven Broomhead said: “Whitebirk is a strategic site for East Lancashire business and a key site for future employment.”