Levelling Up East Lancashire

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in helping us to develop detailed proposals for our ambitious Levelling Up East Lancashire programme. The feedback and ideas from stakeholders, communities, and residents has helped us to understand where and how improvements will make the most difference across Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale.

About the programme

The programme is made up of £5m funding from Lancashire County Council and an indicative allocation of £50m from Government following a successful bid in 2023. It will deliver a range of improvements through three connected projects: 

  • Safer, greener, healthier streets
  • Accessible and vibrant town centres
  • Public transport improvements. 

The improvements planned through these three projects will provide: 

  • faster and more reliable bus journeys 
  • safer and more accessible streets 
  • better travel choices to access jobs, education and services
  • more attractive and busier town centres
  • enhanced public and green spaces to spend time in

Our proposals have been carefully developed to ensure a strategic and joined up approach to delivering improvements across East Lancashire, and these projects complement wider investment projects within these districts and elsewhere across the county. 

You can find out more about how the programme has been developed and the engagement we have carried out so far in the section below.

View more information about the detailed proposals for the projects here.

Next steps

Our final plans have been submitted to Government. A summary of the proposals submitted, known as a full business case, is available here:

Subject to confirmation from the Government of the funding and final programme, work will start later in 2025. We will continue to engage and inform local communities and other stakeholders as we move into the delivery phase.

Engagement activity

We carried out engagement with local stakeholders to help us develop our initial bid. Further engagement was then carried out with stakeholders and local communities about the plans between October 2023 and May 2024. The feedback we received significantly influenced the development of the final proposals for Levelling Up East Lancashire.

We have worked with and listened to stakeholders and residents in lots of ways, including local workshop events, route visits and online surveys. We listened to views at in-person events in areas that we are proposing to deliver Safer, Greener, Healthier Streets schemes and in each area that we are proposing Accessible and Vibrant Town Centre schemes. The engagement sessions gave us an understanding of how local communities feel the proposed interventions should be prioritised.

We’ve worked closely with district councils and local businesses and communities across the four districts to ensure that our plans are feasible and complement other projects such as local Levelling Up schemes, county transport and travel initiatives and town masterplans.

These insights have helped us to shape, adapt and improve the initial plans so that we can deliver schemes that matter most to local people. This means that proposals have been tailored for each project and may include improvements such as new surfacing on pavements or roads, better street lighting, seating areas or tree planting. Other changes may include road safety measures to make streets and crossing points safer, and support walking and cycling as travel options for people alongside public transport and car travel.

A six-week survey was carried out from July 2024 to get feedback and comments from a wide range of stakeholders including residents, local businesses and other local community groups. The survey was hosted on the Council’s online consultation platform, with other formats and support available for anyone who needed assistance to share their views. The findings of the survey were used to make final changes to the plans.

A summary of all engagement activity is available here.

How we developed the Levelling Up East Lancashire programme

Lancashire's initial bid for the Levelling Up Fund was designed to provide a choice of complementary public transport, walking and cycling opportunities to significantly improve travel for people across East Lancashire, offering safer, more inclusive, affordable and low carbon travel choices.

We assessed lots of data to identify areas that would benefit from the funding available, including levels of employment, health, physical activity, air quality, car ownership, road accidents, walking and cycling, and bus and rail services.

We concluded that parts of East Lancashire would benefit the most and had the best potential to meet the criteria of the fund.

After considering 600 potential transport schemes county-wide, the council selected themed interventions in the East Lancashire districts of Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale. The bid was designed to help deliver: 

  • Safer, greener and healthier streets
  • Better walking and cycling routes
  • Improvements to local public transport

Find out more about our Levelling Up Fund award.

About the Levelling Up Fund

The Levelling Up Fund was designed to invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK and support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets.

A range of District and Unitary council bids from across Lancashire formed part of the 100 plus projects that received a share of the £2.1 billion pot in round two of the government’s flagship Levelling Up Fund.

Alongside the successful county council bid, government awards included £50 million to Lancaster City Council to support Eden Project Morecambe.

Lancashire County Council is also supporting the delivery of successful bids by district councils in Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Preston including bespoke funding support from the council’s £5million local Levelling Up Investment Fund and £12.8m Local Economic Recovery Fund.

Lancashire’s overall Levelling Up investment is in excess of £225 million from the government scheme to date.