If you could improve anything about Burnley (the town)

[Milltown1882]

A question that I had a good chat about with a couple of friends today. If you had the power to improve the town in 2/3 ways what would you implement?

Could be anything from housing to town centre retail to environment etc.

Interested to see other peoples suggestions.

[claptrappers_union]

That Kierby hotel and the shops under and around it. Just flatten it all.

[Quickenthetempo]

Canal network, to make it into a popular tourist attraction with facilities for everyone in the area.

[summitclaret]

Make the night economy attractive to people other than the young as well. For example more decent restaurants, preferable in a concentrated area. As money gets tighter we need those with spare to spend it in the town.

[timshorts]

Move Blackburn to Yorkshire.

[bobinho]

That Kierby hotel and the shops under and around it. Just flatten it all.

If I could "double like" this, I would.

Everything after Mark & Sparks on that side of the road right thru to the Keirby should be raised to the ground. The people who developed it into the abomination it is now should be sought out and publicly flogged.

[welsbyswife]

I travel all over the place for work and Burnley Town Centre is doing a lot better than a lot of similar sized places. Lucky to have so many brilliant parks for the size of the town as well. In terms of improvements I think the area between Asda/ the new college buildings and town is grubby and poorly connected on foot. Anyone getting off a train there for the first time would have a really poor impression of the town.

[jdrobbo]

Physical: Gannow Top roundabout. Don’t like it…drivers don’t use it properly and most changes over the last decade have made negligible difference.

Human: improve community cohesion further and work harder to encourage more non-white British people from our brilliantly diverse town, to come and enjoy the matchday experience at Turf Moor.

[jrgbfc]

Make the nightclubs close at a sensible time, and try and get young people into the habit of going out earlier to support the pubs and bars.
Letting places stay open until 7/8am has turned a thriving nightlife scene into an unsafe, deserted dump.

[TsarBomba]

I’ve lived in many different places over the past 15 years-

Braintree
Newbury
Fleet
Basingstoke
Reading
Wandsworth
Sevenoaks
Maidstone

And it’s only until you move away that you realise Burnley is alright.

Yeah, it has its problems, but so does everywhere.

The people of Burnley are great, then there’s the footy, the countryside, no real congestion. As already mentioned, the parks are fantastic and a real credit to the council for maintaining them.

I’d sooner live in Burnley than the vast majority of places I’ve lived.

[Billy Balfour]

Canal network, to make it into a popular tourist attraction with facilities for everyone in the area.

I guy was robbed and assaulted on the Straight Mile last week. In board daylight too around midday.

[TheFamilyCat]

I’ve lived in many different places over the past 15 years-

Braintree
Newbury
Fleet
Basingstoke
Reading
Wandsworth
Sevenoaks
Maidstone

Winnersh. Taplow.

[jrgbfc]

I travel all over the place for work and Burnley Town Centre is doing a lot better than a lot of similar sized places. Lucky to have so many brilliant parks for the size of the town as well. In terms of improvements I think the area between Asda/ the new college buildings and town is grubby and poorly connected on foot. Anyone getting off a train there for the first time would have a really poor impression of the town.

Good point, I've often thought when pulling into Burnley central how bad that derelict, abandoned pub looks. It must be a listed building, I can't see any other reason why it hasn't been bulldozed.

[mikeS]

Better jobs for people with better pay and better prospects.

[summitclaret]

I guy was robbed and assaulted on the Straight Mile last week. In board daylight too around midday.

It's worse than that. A young guy who uses his hands for a living was left dejected after being beaten and left in a net last Sunday afternoon.

[Billy Balfour]

Heh. Good one.

[AshevilleNCClaret]

How are the footpaths within the town?
Not to get off topic, but I'm planning a trip there next year, and noticed that some of the google maps show footpaths (specifically there is one near the Holiday inn on M65). Wasn't sure if people used them or it is a place to stay away from.

[bfcjg]

Flatten bottom part of St James Street were all the manky taxi offices and takeaways are, also open up the rivers that flow through the centre, slow them down with dams, put walkways in above and next to them, it's almost like we choose to hide them, were the Calder and Brun meet open that area up and just demolish that hideous scrap metal place and create some sort of garden area where you can appreciate the river meeting.

[karatekid]

Flatten the terraced row of shops/taxi rank next to the Coach and Horses on Church st opposite the Sion Church. Proper eyesore that totally detracts from the modern look of the St. Peters Centre.

[Pickles]

Burnley has canals and mills, so why not make the most of them.

Public transport has improved a bit but it can still be better. We're so close to Manchester and Leeds but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

[Burnley Ace]

When people mention “flattening” various buildings who is paying to purchase the property and do the work?

[Volvoclaret]

I guy was robbed and assaulted on the Straight Mile last week. In board daylight too around midday.

In these woke times can you call it The Straight Mile ?

[Rowls]

Down with the Kierby.

Reinstate as many of the Victorian street footprints as possible.

No new build to be built without a discernible facade. 3 to 1 ratio of traditional to modern designs, minimum.

Force Tesco to relocate into town centre into a a proper shop building.

[Quickenthetempo]

How are the footpaths within the town?
Not to get off topic, but I'm planning a trip there next year, and noticed that some of the google maps show footpaths (specifically there is one near the Holiday inn on M65). Wasn't sure if people used them or it is a place to stay away from.

Footpaths are fine.

[claptrappers_union]

When people mention “flattening” various buildings who is paying to purchase the property and do the work?

Not much work with the Kierby, just a good nudge would do the trick, shouldn’t cost a penny.

[Billy Balfour]

In these woke times can you call it The Straight Mile ?

I think so. There are two benders at either end. Oo, er, missus.

[Lambo]

Where do I start? Flatten the Keirby, flatten the Adelphi, upgrade the Central Train Station or at least make it look inviting and not like something in a Wes Craven horror film, improve the quality of shops along the arterial routes - Colne Rd being the obvious route with its tacky takeaways, improve the canal side from Westgate through to Daneshouse ie use some of the old buildings for redevelopment, accommodation for the impending increase in University students should be a priority, improve the quality of the road surfaces, more quality shops in the town centre, not poundshops, charity shops, coffee shops or betting shops….improve the footfall in the covered market by again filling it with more varied stalls - that would include business rate reductions for all town centre shops to improve uptake on currently empty plots, free parking in the town centre all weekend

[conyoviejo]

Sort out the roundabout at the bottom of the college so people know which lane to get into ,instead of cutting people up to get into the lane that takes you to the Padiham turn off.

[Swizzlestick]

Do something about that old Sidewalk 53 building! Must have been derelict for best part of a decade now and it’s the first thing you see coming out of the bus station.

[dougcollins]

That Kierby hotel and the shops under and around it. Just flatten it all.

Agree about the Kierby, but I don’t know what the shops have done wrong- don’t think Haffners would be too happy.

[Bosscat]

Move Blackburn to Yorkshire.

**** off you can keep the ****hole

[Paul Waine]

Better jobs for people with better pay and better prospects.

Saw the subject of this thread after reading all the "10.1%" thread. Had exactly this thought, biggest improvement to Burnley will come from more people, many more people, having better pay and better prospects. We all know that the countryside around Burnley is amongst the best in the country (even though Barley is full). We know that there used to be good, high skilled jobs. It's all about creating those new opportunities in 21st century industries rather than trying to hold on to the 20th century ones.

All the other stuff, the "built environment" as it's called, will get sorted as the ambitions for the new industries start to be realised.

[atlantalad]

Better jobs for people with better pay and better prospects.

Problem is it is difficult to break Burnleys' identity to the old industrial town it once was. The days of Lucas's, Michelin, GKN have long passed. Recent efforts to revamp the image ( i.e the failed training centre on Trafalgar St) essentially focused on sustaining the 'engineering' industry. It trained to supply the much reduced, existing, industry - as old as it is. That's not to say there aren' t some world leading engineering companies in the area (AMS, RR, Safran, Paradigm) . There's just too few of these for the working population ( or just too few well trained people with the correct skill set for these existing companies to grow).

Burnley needs to move on and entice the new generation technologies to the area i.e. Software coding, biotech, advanced materials (like graphene), chip manufacturing, battery technology - build on it's engineering heritage. Sadly, such tech companies generally migrate to where there's a good supply/ pool of skilled talent and the training institutes in Burnley are just too far behind the curve in supplying that work force.

[Suratclaret]

It’s over 11years since I lived in Burnley so things might have happened that I don’t know about but the area around Burnley Central station was a disgrace. Hopefully that’s changed by now.
The town has amazing parks and it’s important that those standards are maintained in this age of financial cutbacks.

[FCBurnley]

The good things as I remember them

Burnley FC
Burnley CC
Burnley GC
The Library
The Canal
The people
Towneley park and Golf course
Scott’s and Thompson Parks
Hurstwood
Worsthorne ( daughter lives there)

Not much else really but enough there to build a great town around

Oh I forgot the extremely rare accent and Gawthorpe

[Malleys tackle]

Pull down that god awful orange and grey building at the Mitre traffic lights.

[timshorts]

I’ve lived in many different places over the past 15 years-

Braintree
Newbury
Fleet
Basingstoke
Reading
Wandsworth
Sevenoaks
Maidstone

And it’s only until you move away that you realise Burnley is alright.

Yeah, it has its problems, but so does everywhere.

The people of Burnley are great, then there’s the footy, the countryside, no real congestion. As already mentioned, the parks are fantastic and a real credit to the council for maintaining them.

I’d sooner live in Burnley than the vast majority of places I’ve lived.

Looking at that list, I can only surmise that your employers have been taking the **** at your expense. I bet they put you in Newbury before the bypass, too. I often get accused of liking places that are thought of as crap holes, (Maidstone and Burnley among them) but I'd need paying bankers bonuses every month to live in some of those.

[pushpinpussy]

Burnley could be a great little town but there are too many unemployed scruffs knocking around making the area look very poor. Something needs to be done to get these people back into work or education. It is too easy for them. The Government should send them on courses to help them learn new skills as part of their benefit packages. You go into Burnley town centre and these scruffs are hanging around Poundland/Argos etc in their dirty counterfeit tracksuits and it makes the area look even more deprived than it is. Get these people working, give these people an identity and Burnley will be booming once again. A lot of money has been spent over the last few years and Burnley looks better than it as ever done but unfortunately it is the same people knocking around who have no self-respect that lets it down.

[taio]

Burnley could be a great little town but there are too many unemployed scruffs knocking around making the area look very poor. Something needs to be done to get these people back into work or education. It is too easy for them. The Government should send them on courses to help them learn new skills as part of their benefit packages. You go into Burnley town centre and these scruffs are hanging around Poundland/Argos etc in their dirty counterfeit tracksuits and it makes the area look even more deprived than it is. Get these people working, give these people an identity and Burnley will be booming once again. A lot of money has been spent over the last few years and Burnley looks better than it as ever done but unfortunately it is the same people knocking around who have no self-respect that lets it down.

No Argos in the town centre.

[Top Claret]

No Argos in the town centre.

He meant B&M

[taio]

He meant B&M

Wrong too

[wilks_bfc]

Pull down that god awful orange and grey building at the Mitre traffic lights.

I agree, but only for the reasons that it causes havoc with my OCD every time I pass it.
From left to right they alternate the windows between square & rectangle but when you get to the right there are 2 sets of square ones together

[Top Claret]

Wrong too

The scruffs definitely hang around B&M I have seen them with my own eyes, they walk down Accy road and call in there for cheap booze

[taio]

The scruffs definitely hang around B&M I have seen them with my own eyes, they walk down Accy road and call in there for cheap booze

Oh.

Crikey, there are some rights pricks on this messageboard.

[Loyal Supporter]

I think so. There are two benders at either end. Oo, er, missus.

I am amazed that anyone would find this mildly amusing. What next Billy? Which minority group will you have us holding our sides at?
How to improve Burnley? Clearly education.

[Stanbill05]

I have similar list to Tsar Bomb with some Cornwall and Wiltshire on top and I'd move back to Burnley (area) tomorrow if the wife, kids and work would let me. Unfortunately, the town can be a shock if you're used to the Cotswolds. I love the terraced rows and wouldn't want to lose them, but they need a good tidy up in places. The biggest appeal to Burnley

[Billy Balfour]

No Argos in the town centre.

Aye, it shut down ages ago.

[taio]

Aye, it shut down ages ago.

Yep. Just the usual lies.

[Top Claret]

Oh.

Crikey, there are some rights pricks on this messageboard.

Correct and you are one of them

[JohnMcGreal]

Problem is it is difficult to break Burnleys' identity to the old industrial town it once was. The days of Lucas's, Michelin, GKN have long passed. Recent efforts to revamp the image ( i.e the failed training centre on Trafalgar St) essentially focused on sustaining the 'engineering' industry. It trained to supply the much reduced, existing, industry - as old as it is. That's not to say there aren' t some world leading engineering companies in the area (AMS, RR, Safran, Paradigm) . There's just too few of these for the working population ( or just too few well trained people with the correct skill set for these existing companies to grow).

Burnley needs to move on and entice the new generation technologies to the area i.e. Software coding, biotech, advanced materials (like graphene), chip manufacturing, battery technology - build on it's engineering heritage. Sadly, such tech companies generally migrate to where there's a good supply/ pool of skilled talent and the training institutes in Burnley are just too far behind the curve in supplying that work force.

That, plus the fact that Burnley, like everywhere else in the country, now has barriers to trade with its biggest and closest market. If towns like Burnley were struggling to attract investment before, there's a good chance that coffin has been nailed shut now.

Add to that the removal of EU regeneration funding that Burnley has massively benefitted from over the years along with stretched local council budgets, and I think it's optimistic to see any improvement on the horizon for the town. Which is a bloody shame, but that's just the reality of it.