The £737,000 transformation of a Blackburn high street into a green and flexible 'honeypot' to attract shoppers and visitors is now back on track.

In June it was put on ice because of the General Election, but Thursday's meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive board was told by its regeneration boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood the new Labour government has approved the Whitehall grant and programme of works for the regeneration of the town centre's King William Street.

The cash will come from the government's High Street Accelerator Programme to revitalise the road and surrounding area.

Cllr Mahmood said work on the scheme will start imminently and should take around 10 months.

The schedule of works for the project was approved by civil servants at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in May under the previous Conservative government but was put on hold until after the June 4 national poll.

Now the council has been told the grant award and project details had been approved by the new Labour administration.

Cllr Mahmood said after the meeting: "I am absolutely pleased this money has been confirmed.

"It is something we really want to do,

"It is an important part of our town centre and high street plans.

"Meeting about it are already underway.

"We hope to start work imminently and it should take ten months to complete."

Key elements of the project include:

  • creating a more flexible, open and safe space;
  • more sustainable planting;
  • an architectural play feature;
  • greening of the three main entrances to The Mall;
  • repair or replacement of old planters/benches and removal of street clutter;
  • the use of street furniture to tackle unauthorised parking;
  • creative lighting in the evening;
  • improvements to pavement cafes;
  • new planting to link King William Street to the surrounding roads; and
  • maintenance to existing large trees.

The High Street Accelerator programme gave Blackburn with Darwen Council received an initial £237,000 grant for the project in 2023 with an additional £500,000 awarded in May.

The council was initially told to complete the work by the end of March next year.

Conservative growth spokesperson Cllr Paul Marrow, who attended the meeting as an observer, said: "This is good news.

"I hope they now get on with delivering it.

"It is important we make Blackburn town centre an attractive place of people and shoppers to visit.

"It's good to see the new government honouring the promises made by the previous one."