A LUXURY hotel and spa will form part of the £34 million redevelopment of Brierfield Mill.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said private sector investors had been lined up for ‘almost every part of the scheme’.

And a Government minister Continued n 2 will cast his eye over the site next week ahead of a funding announcement later this month.

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Mr Stephenson said he and Pendle Council were ‘confident’ that they could impress Cities Minister Greg Clark enough to secure a public grant to go alongside the private backing.

The proposed 78-bed hotel and spa would be the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the 380,000 square foot plot.

Council leader Joe Cooney said he understood the hotelier which had expressed interest in the site was ‘a well-known, upmarket chain’.

Already a new marina, business units and leisure facilities have been announced for the scheme, known as Northlight, which is the biggest single development project planned for Pendle.

A 71-flat retirement village run by Evermore Wellbeing was the first tenant to sign a deal with developer Pendle Enterprise and Regeneration Limited (PEARL) last June.

Tomorrow details of the scheme will go on public exhibition at Brierfield Town Hall to enable residents to find out more.

Cllr Cooney said: “The scheme is viable and that’s what we will show the minister. Now we are are moving to put all the final pieces in place.”

Mr Stephenson secured the visit, which could prove crucial in securing funding, during an exchange in the House of Commons yesterday.

He told the Commons: “The second phase of local growth deals proposed by Lancashire local enterprise partnership includes a scheme to regenerate the largest redundant mill complex in the county, Brierfield Mill.

“That scheme is in my constituency and I have raised and discussed it in detail with the minister.

“Although I appreciate that he will be receiving many invitations from colleagues across the House to visit their constituencies, may I encourage him to visit Brierfield Mill at the earliest opportunity to see the exciting plans we have?”

Mr Clark, Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, replied: “My Honourable Friend is right that he has raised this with me before and I am keen to see the scheme that he paints in such glowing terms, so if he is free to see me a week on Friday I will come up to his constituency and view the mill.

“I am confident that it will be as attractive as the picture he paints of it.”

The mill, a Grade II listed building which was formerly home to Smith and Nephew, was earmarked for an international Muslim girls’ college until a Birmingham charity was told the plans were not within its remit.

Mr Stephenson said: “We’re going to take him (Mr Clark) through the plans. The Lancashire local enterprise partnership have told him there is the potential there so now the minister is coming to look t it for himself. He is the one deciding who the funding is going to.

“A planning application is due in January and the week after that we find out if we’ve got funding. It’s taken a long time to get all the ducks in a row on this, but it’s all falling into place.”

The updated masterplan for Brierfield Mill, along with details of PEARL’s 48-home development in nearby Clitheroe Road, will be unveiled at the exhibition in Brierfield Town Hall which runs between 2pm and 8pm tomorrow.