A WINNING design has been found to transform the centre of a Rossendale town.

London-based Neu Architects scooped the Pennine Lancashire Squared competition to redevelop Bacup town centre.

The group beat tough competition with a proposal of a new street market including tree planting, hedges and aromatic gardens.

Bosses at Neu Architects impressed the judges with plans to use local materials and retain a popular water feature in the town centre.

Coun Michael Lee, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire leaders and chief executives, said: “Pennine Lancashire Squared has challenged all of us charged with representing our areas to think creatively about the future we want for our towns.

“It’s about taking the best of who we are and reinventing ourselves for the future.

“We are very pleased with the results, the point now is to get them built.”

Elevate, which ran the competition on behalf of the local authority, has now handed the award-winning designs to Rossendale Council to take forward.

Though the plans to transform the town are now on the table, funding for the project, which must be organised by Rossendale Council is still a long way off.

A spokesman from Rossendale Council said: “There is no funding secured to deliver this or any similar scheme in Bacup at the present time.

“The design competition was to identify a suitable designer.

“It is important that we have the plans down on paper so that when we do approach funding bodies, we can highlight exactly what we want the Bacup square to look like.

“It is a long term aspiration of ours, but until we get funding, we will continue to look at practical alternatives.”

The director of Neu Architects is confident that funding will be found.

Ben Paul, whose London-based company was awarded first place, is hopeful residents will soon see his designs come to fruition.

He said: “We are obviously delighted to have won and are extremely excited about developing the concept ideas with the community.

“This is a very positive move for Bacup, particularly to be associated with the other five Pennine Lancashire Squared projects which will significantly help with fundraising.”

Bosses at LOCI Design, who specialise in landscape architecture, have teamed up with Neu to deliver the project.