Pride in Place Impact Fund – Earby Town Council’s Position

In recent months, your Town Council has identified nine projects for delivery in Earby as part of the ‘bidding’ process for the Pride of Place Impact Fund. Following consultation with hundreds of residents, Council Members shortlisted their proposals at a meeting on Thursday 15th January based on the required objectives of the fund, the visual impact on the town and breadth of improvement they brought, immediately and as longer term investments.

Earby is earmarked to be allocated £137,101 (9.1% of the £1.5m total) this amount being determined by PBC based on the adult population of the five Pendle areas to benefit. The total cost of our aspirational projects exceeded this amount so we prioritised them on request as follows;

1. Enhancements to the Town Centre CCTV infrastructure and four new cameras to supplement seven already connected to the CCTV control room and linked to Lancashire Constabulary. Members felt this project was critical to providing enhanced public safety and security, detecting crime and anti-social behaviour and protecting publicly funded assets from damage, particularly any new spending on the below projects. This was seen as a key enabling project for broader future improvements by the Town Council.
2.  The refurbishment and reopening of the public toilet at the Station Hotel following years of repeated expenditure and closure due to vandalism – to include a new steel door and card access system, proven to be instrumental in successfully reopening the bus station toilets in 2024.
3. The refurbishment and reopening of the Hill Top Recreation Pavilion to support youth facilities and events.
4. The landscaping and replanting of the paved seating area and railway embankment on Colne Road opposite the end of Victoria Road, to include the redesign and redevelopment of the seating and planters and screening of the industrial units to provide a more attractive and welcoming focal point in the town centre for residents, visitors and attract passersby.

The above projects have been dismissed outright without explanation. The remaining Town Council proposals are progressing to the next stage, with conditions applied.

5. £8,685 towards a replacement wet-pour play surface at Rushton Avenue playground – subject to a £12,000 ‘match fund’ contribution being made from the Town Council. This amount is our total reserve for repairs on all our playgrounds and match funding is not a prerequisite of this central government funding.

1. A contribution of £9,000 towards our ongoing renovation of the upstairs community room at the Town Council offices to provide an additional community space for use by local community groups.
2. £12,000 towards the painting of LCC and PBC owned street furniture along the Victoria Road/Water Street and Colne Road to improve the visual amenity.
3. £10,000 towards new festive lighting, subject to a £2,000 contribution being sought from the Town Council.
4. Funding for a Town Council proposed accessible footbridge at Birley Playing Fields as part of the Town Council’s planned redevelopment of the playground there.

Earby Town Council was not consulted on the following costed proposals and since allocated Pride In Place funding.

1. Sough Park changing rooms (£13,460)
2. Sough Park public toilets (£6,730)
3. Kelbrook playground (£4,000)
4. Sough Park football pitch drainage (£16,825)
5. Seats installed in the bus shelter (Earby Bus Station) (£6,250)
6. New pavements, Victoria Road understood to be by the Conservative Club (£25,000)

Earby Town Council does not support the use of PIPIF funding on the buildings at Sough Park which sit outside of the parish of Earby and have been subject to years of underfunding and neglect by its owner Pendle Borough Council. Indeed, the Town Council previously withdrew the annual contribution of 11% of its own budget to this park due to concerns over how the money was spent by PBC.

The Town Council is also of the view that the public realm pavement works proposed is also an inappropriate use of these funds, providing negligible benefit for the cost in a less visible area of the town. The tar macadam pavement outside the Conservative Club and adjacent takeaway is currently fit for purpose and does not require stone paving at a cost of £25,000

The Town Council is also at a loss to understand how converting a perch bench to a park type bench in a single bus shelter can cost the proposed £6,250. We will continue to clean the bus shelter and maintain the other five benches in the bus station.

The decision as to which projects have been allocated funding was taken by the Leader of Pendle Borough Council, Cllr Whipp in isolation, only later ratified by the Deputy Leader. The process implemented in allocating these centrally provided funds has been wholly inappropriate, lacked transparency and was undemocratic given Cllr Whipp’s positions on Barnoldswick Town Council, the West Craven and District Committee, Pendle Borough Council and Lancashire County Council.

Sadly, at a meeting held on Friday 9th January with Pendle Borough Council intended to be an initial exchange of ideas, Cllr Whipp was dismissive of the proposals presented by the three Town Councillors in attendance and spoke in derogatory terms about the town, abruptly terminating the meeting an hour early without an input from all those present.

This should have been a community-led collaboration of ideas and projects debated openly for their value and impact on local quality of life, in meeting the Pride In Place objectives. The outcome is a blinkered, funnelling of public funds into projects that meet the Leader’s own agenda and self-promotion. With a shocking lack of scrutiny, challenge and overview by the organisation’s Executive.

Pendle Borough Council’s public consultation survey is now presented to the communities involved as a done-deal, with the decisions already made without your prior input, seeking only to know what you think of the decisions already made by the Leader.

The survey closes at 5pm on March 8th March 2026. Earby Town Council encourages you to put your views on the local implementation of the Pride in Place funding on public record.

Earby Town Council

February 2026

https://earbytowncouncil.gov.uk

01282 844 965