Playground & village hall upgrades amongst Lancashire projects earmarked for investment

Clitheroe, Thornley, West Bradford, Ribchester and Dunsop Bridge feature in a new list of projects Ribble Valley Council could support from its own cash and other schemes are earmarked for grants from government-backed prosperity funds.

Ribble Valley Council has its own £1.6million Ribble Valley Shared Prosperity Fund, including its Jubilee Fund created last year for its 50th anniversary.

Other cash is also available from the national UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund.

There are however spending deadlines next spring and some funds remains unallocated, according to a report for the council’s Policy & Finance Committee.

Which projects are set to get some cash?

In Clitheroe, Primrose Community Nature Trust is recommended to be given £95,000 to create a third footpath access point near the town centre to the Primrose Lodge section of the River Ribble. It is involved with river, woodland and public access improvements where the Ribble was heavily silted by historic activity, a textile mill dam or pool area called a ‘lodge’, and natural erosion. Improvements have been done, or are planned, to remove silt and enhance a fish pass and the dam, to help fish movement. The Ribble Rivers Trust has played an important role in this work.

Trees have then been coppiced, overgrown areas pruned and new views created whilst public footpaths and a curving wooden bridge, inspired by the impressionist artist Monet, have been developed near St James’ School. There is also work, or plans, to develop more footpath links including to Clitheroe’s Holmes Mill and Whalley Road.

Elsewhere, Ribchester Playing Field Trust is earmarked for £100,000 of council cash to replace play equipment and safety matting at Ribchester recreation ground.

Thornley Community Space, housed in a former Victorian village school, is recommended £56,000 to upgrade its heating system to sustainable energy technology and West Bradford Village Hall is recommended to receive £10,000 to enhance its playground and exercise equipment .

Dunsop Bridge Jubilee Play Area Charitable Trust is recommended to get £50,000 towards new play equipment, as part of a refurbishment project. The total cost for the project’s first phase is £140,000, according to a council report.

There are then recommendations for UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocations including £100,000 for Read and Simonstone Village Hall accessible toilets; £65,000 for Mellor Brook & District Community Centre; £15,000 for Rimington Recreation Association’s pavilion; and £25,000 for Whalley Educational Foundation, for a 300 year-old building that provides a backdrop to Whalley War Memorial.

Also recommended are funds for Whalley Allotments whilst Longridge Civic Hall is recommended for £90,000 and Longridge Town Council is recommended £90,000 for Towneley Gardens event space.

Meanwhile from the Rural England Prosperity Fund, £4,300 is recommended for a Ribchester Village Hall projector; £18,000 for a solar-linked heating system at Knowle Green Village Hall; £42,000 for work at Downham Village Hall; £15,000 for Chipping Parish Council to improve a playground and football goalposts; £7,000 for Wiswell war memorial improvements; nearly £9,000 for Sabden’s Holme play area and £22,000 for Grindleton Playground.

What’s next?

A working group of Ribble Valley councillors have looked at different community applications in recent months and made the latest recommendations.

Now, the council’s Policy & Finance Committee is being asked to formally approve the recommendations. Following that, the community groups will send full applications.

The groups will be told funding is the total amount available and they will have to meet any financial overspends.

Groups will also be asked to keep records as work progresses.

Councillors are being advised a large amount of money is still not allocated to any projects.