FAQ

BXB wishes to regenerate a redundant, 7-acre former mill site in Hoddlesden and bring it back to productive use for the community.

The site’s primary value would be in the provision of new homes. We are considering a mix of house types so that people on all stages of the housing ladder can benefit from the opportunity to buy in the village. That means new terraced homes through to semi-detached and detached houses. We are also examining the option for homes suitable for more elderly residents.

The cost of remediating the site (that is, removing any contaminated land and soil from its former use) will have a bearing on the viability of certain uses.

The site has largely gone to seed, with areas of hard-standing remaining. The site’s borders have deteriorated somewhat and there have been problems with tipping and small-scale fly tipping. There is no denying its obvious dereliction.

Once discussions are concluded with all stakeholders a planning application in line with national and local policies will be submitted for the site’s re-use. The nature and scope of the final scheme will determine who may wish to develop the site and an open-market bidding process will be undertaken to find a suitable partner to build-out the project.

It’s on the main road into the village.

We will work closely with Blackburn with Darwen Council’s highways officers to design suitable means of ingress and egress to the site in line with current policies.

As a former industrial site, it received some volume of traffic throughout its life and the existing road network handled this satisfactorily. We would expect this to remain the case but are aware of concerns around the bend on Johnson New Road and, of course, parking by the steps to St. Paul’s school during drop-off and pick-up times. We have already spoken with the school’s head teacher about this issue, as well as with your local councillor.

The site slopes down to Hoddlesden Reservoir.

We have a team of expert environmental consultants advising us and will submit a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment as part of our planning submission. This will address how any final proposals meet our statutory obligations.

Construction, particularly house-building, requires large amounts of skilled labour and utilises local supply chains for efficiency and speed. Any development of the site can be expected to create jobs and supply opportunities for this part of east Lancashire. The ultimate choice of suppliers will lie with whomever develops out the scheme, of course.

The development is likely to lead to an increase in the number of people living and/or working in Hoddlesden, creating income for local shops and service providers. This additional spend can create new opportunities, too. Research tells us that occupiers of new homes spend around £5,000 per house on ‘first occupation’ costs to make a house ‘feel like a home’ and a proportion of this can be expected to be spent locally.