Bid stepped up for regeneration cash

Council staff and residents were disappointed when they heard officials from the Government Office for the North West (GONW) had rejected the bid for £4million which would have been invested into the two wards.

But at a meeting of the Executive at Nelson Town Hall, members agreed a second round bid should be submitted with slightly revised boundaries.

If this bid was also unsuccessful, the council decided it would seek funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

Leader of the council, Councillor Azhar Ali, said: "We were thoroughly disappointed to have a very good bid rejected. However we are receiving feedback from the GONW and we intend to re-submit a strengthened bid for the same areas in Colne.

"I strongly believe that regeneration in Pendle has to incorporate all areas of the borough. This bid if successful will make a significant difference to the way people in Colne receive services from their council."

The Waterbridge Initiative was put forward by Pendle Borough Council with support from Pendle Partnership and was developed to tackle health, income, employment and child poverty problems in Colne's needy areas.

Identified as an eligible area, Pendle was one of 72 local authorities that put together a bid for cash from the Government's £45million Neighbourhood Pathfinder Fund but only 20 were successful.

The GONW has so far informally confirmed the reasons to the Council for their failed bid. These included:

The bid area being too big

It not sufficiently identifying ethnic minority needs

Officials not convinced Pendle had the structures in place to be ready to make a quick start.

But in praising the bid it mentioned the good community involvement, said the bid was innovative and its overall ranking was good.

The cash would have been used to appoint neighbourhood managers and to plan action to improve local services while ensuring that residents had an equal say in the decisions made.