LAST YEAR television presenter Anthony Wilson and his partner Yvette Livesey published a report entitled Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire - designed to show how the image of the area could be improved in a bid to attract investment and increase quality of life.

The pair have now been asked by their paymasters at housing renewal company Elevate to produce a final business plan looking at which projects can become a reality.

ANTHONY Wilson claims he is a world expert in regeneration because he and his partner Yvette have "lived through the Manchester experience."

Wilson has seen Manchester transformed from a "grimy, dirty city" in the seventies to one of the country's most vibrant places. And he hopes to do the same for East Lancashire.

Elevate is the Housing Market Renewal company tasked with raising the quality of East Lancashire's homes by refurbishment, demolition and rebuilding in some of the most run-down areas But according to Max Steinberg, the organisation's chief executive, some of the most important work will mean transforming the image of East Lancashire - in a bid to attract investment and interest from outside, and places like Manchester.

This is where the Livesey/Wilson consultancy comes in.

Mr Steinberg said: "Part of what Anthony and Yvette are doing is raising the profile of what this area has to offer in our most effective neighbouring economies.

"If we can do that then people will come here, spend their weekend, spend their leisure time and their money here.

"That's going to improve the economy and the housing market.

"We will not succeed in improving the housing market of East Lancashire unless we improve the image of East Lancashire."

In total the pair are looking to introduce 10 schemes into the area, from the striking "Fashion Tower" in Burnley to the overall marketing area, which could include billboards in areas like Wilmslow advertising East Lancashire as a place to live.

In the past, the idea of Pennine Lancashire has been met with a mixed reaction, and in a bid to measure public opinion, a series of roadshows are to be held later this year and early next, where the scheme will be shown to the public in detail, as a form of public consultation.

Mr Wilson said: "Basically we take over some local hall in each of the five boroughs we're dealing with and invite some local businessmen.

"The ideal would be three people on stage chosen for whatever reason but then free admission to the audience to talk about what Pennine Lancashire is and what's good about it."

He added: "A brand is something you trust so a brand has to be honest.

"You've got Leeds and their new brand is Leeds: Live it, Love it. I think it's awful.

"Pennine Lancashire is what it is. There's two bits of Lancashire, there's the flat boring bit and there's Pennine Lancashire. It's just honest."

The report which will be delivered to Elevate early next year will includes a fashion tower, a football theme park, allotment sheds, bookkeepers for all, more local music events, public art, better rail links to Manchester, new sporting centres, higher profile for the region, and better branding.

Elevate has its work cut out with areas like Burnley, which in October was named as the worst area in the country for its struggling housing market, with high levels of empty homes and low house prices.

But following work by Elevate, areas like Burnley Wood where houses used to sell for £1 have now become a property hot-spot thanks to the money pumped into improving the area.

Some homes now have a price tag of more than £70,000.

In Blackburn with Darwen the Bank Top and Infirmary areas are also set to benefit from Elevate's work.

But according to Max Steinberg, the future of the area lies not in improving separate areas, but treating East Lancashire as a whole.

He said: "This mustn't be allowed to be a series of separate places.

"Blackburn's future is increasingly tied up with Accrington, which is increasingly tied up with Burnley, Nelson and Colne.

"And what this has done is get the authorities working much closer together about this whole sub-regional identity."

He added: "If we can link to the Fashion Tower in Burnley and the Goal experience in Blackburn to the creating of five squares across East Lancashire in the centre of towns recognising the heritage of the towns rather like Exchange Square in Manchester.

"If we can re-find the heritage that made these places the great towns they were, we've got things to build on here.

"We've got God given assets such as the natural countryside, we've got manmade elements. If we can build on this with Livesey/ Wilson and deliver four or five major projects then the housing market renewal will become much easier.

"It will have an effect on house prices, it will have an effect on confidence, it will have an effect on inward investment, it will have an effect on market renewal."

And Yvette said: "There is only so much that Max or ourselves can do, which is surface stuff.

"As soon as you start to make people believe and get interested in the region again suddenly economic things start to happen, people want to invest in the region.

"If our job is only to get people to start to talk about the region then we've done our job."

Mr Wilson said: "Manchester, who I work for a lot, fails miserably to sell the beauty of the area around it, and doesn't seem to understand the beauty.

"And the surrounding natural beauty is one of the big big indicators of bringing businesses and inward investment.

"Clearly this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Some people make the mistake of saying this is a terribly difficult region to regenerate.

"We think it's easy because I always say Yvette and I are world experts on regeneration because we have lived through the Manchester experience and Manchester is without a doubt the greatest piece of regeneration in Europe in the last 50 years.

"No one can now remember what a grimy dirty city Manchester was in the seventies."

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