Memorandum submitted by Burnley Borough
Council
WEAVERS' TRIANGLE, BURNLEY: BRITISH WATERWAYS
EVIDENCE SUBMISSION FROM BURNLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL
BACKGROUND
1. The Weavers' Triangle is an area comprising
predominantly 19th Century industrial buildings clustered around
a 1.6 km length of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal on the western edge
of Burnley Town Centre. The area's history is an embodiment of
the growth and subsequent decline of the town's weaving industry—in
the second half of the 19th Century, Burnley was the world leader
in the manufacture of woven cotton cloth, whereas now there are
only a handful of firms in the town producing textiles (none of
them in the Weavers' Triangle itself).
2. This relatively rapid growth and decline
has left a legacy of substantial, but largely derelict or under-used,
industrial buildings that is unique in the North West region.
Several attempts have been made in recent decades to regenerate
the area, but these have foundered on the sheer scale of the dereliction.
However, Burnley Borough Council has recently been successful
in a funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund's Townscape
Heritage Initiative scheme, and—with a contribution from
its own capital programme, and with financial commitment from
the North West Development Agency, from private sector development
partners, and from British Waterways—we are now embarking
on a regeneration programme with an expected total value in excess
of £60 million.
BRITISH WATERWAYS'
ROLE AS
DEVELOPMENT PARTNER
3. The Council's view is that BW are an
essential partner in this regeneration programme for the following
reasons:
— The Leeds-Liverpool Canal, as well
as providing the main geographic definition of the Weavers' Triangle,
lies at the heart of its history and of the plans for its regeneration
as a cluster of high quality mixed-use developments;
— Central to the regeneration strategy
will be a programme of public realm improvements that will attract
investment and visitors. The canal towpath will be the physical
and conceptual thread which holds this public realm work together;
— The overall vision for the Weavers'
Triangle is for a mix of uses encompassing commercial, residential,
leisure and tourism—this last will include substantially
increased leisure use of the canal itself;
— British Waterways are the owners
of a key development site with the potential to be an important
gateway to the area at its South Eastern end, and we are expecting
them to bring forward a proposal for this site which will constitute
one of the "critical projects" in the Townscape Heritage
Initiative scheme;
— The Weavers' Triangle programme is
indivisible from wider Council strategies for regenerating the
town centre; these will include further plans to maximise the
economic, social and environmental benefits of the canal.
4. The importance of BW to the strategy
for the area is reflected in their representation on the Partnership
Board that is driving the programme forward, as well as in their
active involvement over a period of years in the programme's development.
Their continued involvement is, in our view, essential to the
successful delivery of the regeneration process—just as
we believe they would recognise the importance of their partnership
with us in taking forward their wider strategies for the development
of the Leeds-Liverpool canal corridor.
Hugh Simpson
Head of Regeneration and Economic Development
Burnley Borough Council
March 2008
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