Lancashire recycling charity helps homeless

Bosses from Recycling Lives are in talks over setting up 10 to 20-bed complexes, where residents would work on recycling contracts before eventually becoming self-sufficient and moving out.

The centres, if built, would also include business units and be based on a model created at Recycling Lives HQ in Preston.

A proposal in Hyndburn is most advanced, with a 2.2 acre site in Charter Street, Accrington, identified.

However, a question mark remains over funding.

Pendle Borough Council hopes a centre can be built in Colne and Recycling Lives chiefs have earmarked land in Bacup for a Rossendale complex.

Officers from Blackburn with Darwen and Burnley councils are also interested in the initiative and have held talks with the organisation, which is both a registered charity and a business.

Steven Broomhead, the former North West Development Agency chief executive who is now Recycling Lives chairman, said he was hopeful that funding could be secured from the Homes and Community Agency for the 15-bed Accrington centre.

He said: “Accrington is one we are very interested in.

“We believe there is a need for this in Hyndburn and we are having conversations about setting up others in East Lancashire.

“We want people to see the centre in Preston and see that it works.”

Recycling Lives, which was founded in 1971, targets unemployed people who are keen to work and improve their skills.

They are then put on recycling contracts with clients including Preston Council and energy giant E.ON.

Acting chief executive Kevin Williams said: “It is about getting people back into work and independent living.”

A Pendle Borough Council statement said: “It would be nice to consider having an establishment in Pendle, and it is something we are looking at as a long-term possibility.”

Meanwhile a spokesman for Rossendale Borough Council said: “We have discussed various sites but no formal agreement has been taken.”

Hyndburn Borough Council was unavailable for comment.