East Lancashire's 'worst street' set for canalside houses and apartments (From Chorley Citizen)

East Lancashire's 'worst street' set for canalside houses and apartments

11:20am Tuesday 18th October 2011

PLANS to transform East Lancashire’s ‘worst street’ into an upmarket canalside development have been rubber-stamped.

Permission has been granted by Hyndburn’s Planning Commitee to create canalside apartments and houses where arson-hit terraces recently stood on Rishton’s Spring Street.

Dairmiles Developments Ltd had submitted a bid to develop the piece of land which also includes the former Bridgefield Mill and Britannia Mill sites.

Arson-hit terraces on Spring Street, which were last week demolished, saw firefighters called out a record of 33 times in just six months at the height of problems on the street.

The bid from developers would see the demolition of all existing mill buildings on the site to build thirteen three-bedroom houses, 62 two-bedroom apartments and 62 one bedroom apartments.

Plans would also include 156 car parking spaces.

Coun Harry Grayson, who was born on Spring Street, said he hoped the plans would restore pride in the area.

He said: “I would have liked to have seen more family homes in comparison to apartments, but overall the scheme is good news.

“It may attract more white collar workers and the layout alongside the canal will be an attractive prospect to home buyers.

"The street has been bearing the brunt of problems for quite a while, so this development cannot come too soon.”