A former bank in Bacup which underwent major £600,000 renovations is available for local people looking for a place to meet and hold events.
The area now boasts co-working space where desks can be rented out for £12.50 a day for non-members. A meeting room with a boardroom table is available to rent for £15 an hour.
Bacup Business Association uses the building for its monthly meetings.
Chair, Rachel Weinhold said: “We used to move our venue each month, but that meant a café had to open late and the ABD Centre was getting busier.
“The Alliance is ideal because everyone knows where this building is, there is lots of parking nearby and so it makes it easier for people to come along – we now have 10 to 15 people attending every month.”
Rachel is also a director of digital marketing agency GrowTraffic, which has a remote working policy.
She said the co-working space has provided the company with the ideal solution.
Rachel said: “We have seen progression in staff as a result of them being able to get together and meet up in person.
“We use the space to hot desk, meet clients and we can rent the meeting room to be able to get everyone together.”
The company also hired the space for a teambuilding activity and relocated all the desks to give a large open usable room.
XYP Residential Childcare regularly rents out the meeting room after Registered Manager Tom Dennison walked past the building and spotted a sign saying ‘spaces for rent’.
He said: “I thought. ‘Let’s see what we can do,’ and I met Stephen and just thought what a great space it was.
“Because it is flexible, we can use it to hold meetings or to hot desk. We have two homes in Bacup and have just brought a third on board in Barnoldswick and offer therapeutic care with just one young person in each home.”
The company is called XYP because managing director Phil Hogan-Birse is an 'ex-young person' who was brought up in care from birth.
He said: “Our homes do not have the space for us to hold meetings and it is not always appropriate. Here we have access to a kitchen, space to park and shops on hand to make sure we have food and refreshments. Our team love it.”
Four first and second floor flats also provide accommodation with two for young people who have been helped out of homelessness by the M3 Project charity and are ready to live independently.
The total project cost of £850,000 and was funding by Architectural Heritage Fund, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Rossendale Borough Council’s Bacup High Street Heritage Action Zone and Historic England along with smaller community funds.
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