Pendle Council Summit Explores Improving Life in Borough
by Colne Life magazine
Pendle Borough Council hosted a summit to discuss how to improve the life of residents and businesses in Pendle.
Pendle Borough Council hosted a summit of senior leaders from the public, private and community and voluntary sectors, to discuss how they can work together in a new way to help improve the life of residents and businesses in Pendle.
Representatives from Lancashire County Council, the police, fire service, health sector, business community, education, housing and the community and voluntary sector attended the Pendle Partnership Summit.
Councillor Asjad Mahmood, Leader of Pendle Borough Council, said: “The summit looked at the profile of Pendle, taking into consideration social, economic and environmental factors, and identified where a new partnership working model could add real value to pursuing exciting opportunities and tackling difficult issues.
Councillor Asjad Mahmood, Leader of Pendle Borough Council
“We looked at what life is like in Pendle in 2024 for our residents, communities and businesses.
“Collectively, we talked about how we are doing, what is going well, what opportunities we have, what needs more work and what future challenges may arise.”
Rose Rouse, Chief Executive of Pendle Borough Council, added: “The objectives of the summit were to strengthen and deepen partnership working within the borough; secure collective clarity on the strategic priorities for Pendle and identify relevant contributions to help with the delivery of priorities.
“We considered what is going well, what needs greater attention and the challenges we face.”
The summit identified that Pendle has a vibrant voluntary and community sector; proud community identities; a collaboration for regeneration in Nelson and Colne; an outstanding further education provider and provides exciting cultural events.
They agreed more attention needs to be paid to telling the Pendle story more effectively; identifying key employment sites; strengthening relationships between education and skills providers; identifying key economic sectors with potential for growth; exploring solutions to the borough’s housing stock and continuing to make the case for strengthened transport connectivity into Yorkshire.
Members of the summit acknowledged the challenges they faced included a lack of funding; disruptive change in economic sectors; a slow rate of investment and growth; community issues; the attractiveness of other places to young people who are socially mobile and challenges with some housing quality driving levels of ill health.
It was agreed by all those in attendance, they should meet more often, and that a Pendle strategic partnership should be developed, which will be taken forward in 2025.
