TOWN WAS NOT IN FOREST

RE: ‘Memory Lane’ Haslingden, Free Press December 1st.

Please may I make you aware of the following inaccuracies in this article!

1. Haslingden was not in the Forest of anywhere. The three separate Forests of Blackburnshire were Pendle, Trawden and Rossendale. Haslingden was outside the Rossendale boundary.

2. If it had been inside the Forest in the 13th and 14th centuries, settlement would have been forbidden, and there would not have been a church, which needs a population to support it. Haslingden was an important stopping place en route between Rochdale and Whalley from very early times and was therefore deliberately left outside the Forest to allow it to develop facilities for travellers.

3. The church was established before 1284, when it is mentioned in the books of Stanlowe Abbey, which was planning its move to Whalley, long before the 18th century rebuild. In the 1200s it was part of the universal Church of Rome.

There could not have been a market without a church, which provided the legal over-seeing of transactions before secular institutions.

The exact date of the market’s formation is not thought to be known, but could have been during the Commonwealth, and only registered in the 1670s, although the document is not known to exist.

Haslingden is the oldest town in Rossendale by quite a long way, despite being overtaken by the industrial revolution later on.

Hope this helps further understanding. Kathy Fishwick Rossendale Civic Trust IN November I had the pleasure of attending the Rossendale Business Awards. This year a record number of businesses received recognition in a wide range of categories.

I am always amazed at the diversity of businesses in the Valley. Setting up a business is a courageous act, so great to get the opportunity to celebrate some local business achievements and successes.

One highlight of the night was the part-time business winner last year coming back this year having opened her own shop and taken on staff.

Residents locally have taken a keen interest in the development of Rossendale’s new local plan, and a large number of comments have been received as part of the recent consultation exercise. The forward planning team are now processing those responses.

All comments received will be published on the council’s website as soon as possible. It is then the intention to assess comments received on each potential site and the individual policies and to publish a response addressing the issues raised.

Residents will be pleased to hear that part of the documents supporting the plan will include a Highway Capacity Study, this will help officers to identify where to site new housing, what needs to be done to accommodate development and which areas simply cannot sustain further house building.

After discussions with residents in October, the Borough Council and the RBT Partnership will be putting a planning application forward next week to facilitate the next phase of the town centre redevelopment in Rawtenstall.

Council officers will be writing out to a large number of residents and businesses in Rawtenstall to ensure that they have the opportunity to feed into the process. The initial images that will form part of the application look to compliment Bank Street but will have a more modern feel within the site.

The design team have been keen to maintain a large amount of open space within the site and keep the lovely open aspects and views of old buildings in the town centre.

Following a very successful Christmas lights switch-on, council members and officers met with market traders in Rawtenstall last week to start to look at how we can rejuvenate the market and get some much needed investment into the site.

The market is vital to the longer-term success of the town and it seems like the right time to look at how it can be improved. We will, over the coming months, be looking at how we can better support and develop all our market sites – I will report more about this as plans start to come together.

I would like to finish by offering my very best wishes to you and your family for Christmas and the New Year. If you have any concerns and you would like to speak to me you can contact me on alysonbarnes@ rossendalebc.gov.uk or ring me on 01706 217819 or 07817 414248. I will be happy to hear from you.