Historic Blackburn town centre site set to become £3.5m Special Educational Needs and Disabilities centre

The vacant Bridge House building would be transformed with six classrooms catering for more than 70 pupils aged 16 to 18. There would also be a new café – where students will be able to learn catering and hospitality skills.

Blackburn with Darwen Council will use £1.7m of its ‘Levelling Up’ grants from the Government to help pay for the project, and the authority is already in talks for it to become part of Crosshill School, under the leadership of the Oak Learning Partnership Academy Trust.

The project could see the numbers of post-16 SEND pupils taught by Crosshill almost triple from 25 to 72 to help meet the needs of an anticipated increase. The ambitious project has been revealed in a new report, paving the way for a planning application to be submitted for the building on the corner of Railway Road and Jubilee Street.

The building was historically an office and power supply station for the Blackburn and Over Darwen Tramways Company Ltd. Cassidy and Ashton have been appointed as architects for the scheme, which is expected to cost around £3.5m.The council is also in talks with the nearby Blackburn Youth Zone to allow for the Crosshill students to use its state-of-the-art facilities during the day if the scheme is progressed.

Councillor Quesir Mahmood, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s growth boss said: “What a fantastic scheme this could be to transform the Bridge House building into a SEND centre. The building has been vacant for many years and so it requires significant investment to bring it back into use, but we’ve secured the new government funding to help towards the project.”

Councillor Julie Gunn, the council’s education boss, said: “We want to give all our children the very best start to their lives, and this could be a wonderful new centre for our youngsters with special educational needs.

“The idea of incorporating a café that would be open to the public is particularly exciting as it’ll give the pupils hands-on experience while they learn valuable skills in catering and hospitality, creating important career pathways for them. With impressive new facilities just unveiled at the neighbouring Blackburn Youth Zone too – supported by the Youth Investment Fund – it opens-up wider opportunities for them to be able to access those right on their doorstep.”

Cash

As well as the Government grant and council investment, the authority is also looking to use money from Section 106 developers’ contributions from new building plans.The Executive Member Decision report provides a further details of the scheme which has been subject to extensive survey and feasibility studies since the government funding was confirmed in 2024. It also seeks approval to start enabling works, including a full strip out, and advanced repair works, as well as permission to procure a building contractor.It outlines that more detailed investigations are also required around a culvert which runs under the building.

The planning application is expected to be submitted in the coming weeks.