October opening for £2.5m Valley Centre in Rawtenstall (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

October opening for £2.5m Valley Centre in Rawtenstall

3:30pm Tuesday 24th July 2012 in News By Chris Adams

AN OPENING date has been set for Rossendale Council’s great flagship regeneration scheme.

The council has earmarked October 6 as the official launch date for the revamped Valley Centre in Rawtenstall.

The town’s annual fair will be held that day to mark the occasion, giving members of the public their first chance to see the new square.

But some opposition coun-cillors say that they are disa-ppointed at the lack of preparation that has gone into the scheme.

Heritage campaigners and some local business objected to the £2.5million proposals to create a public space on the former shopping precinct and the Astoria Hall site when planning consent was granted in January. The area has been sealed off since February. The council leader Alyson Barnes said the day of the fair was one that the whole Valley could look forward to. She was responding to claims by Tory councillor Amanda Milling that the project had been delayed and run up additional costs.

But Coun Barnes said: “We haven’t specified an exact date until now so there have been no delays, and as such, no additional costs.”

The Labour-led council came in for criticism from some quarters for failing to dist-ribute a detailed project plan.

Coun Barnes insists these details have now been circu-lated to members.

But the Conservative leader Coun Daryl Smith, said they were not thorough enough.

He added: “The council’s lack of plans show there was no clarity of thought matched to a budget”