Our focus this year was to create an &PLAN for Burnley, which involved an alternative approach to regenerating the town centre, based on a critique of the Levelling Up agenda. My manifesto identified disconnection and fragmentation as a major factor in the social polarisation of the town. My proposals therefore focused on redeveloping sites along the Straight Mile, a long elevated section of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal which divides communities east of Burnley from the town centre. I proposed redeveloping the site of the current Tesco superstore into a key social space by deconstructing the supermarket into a container market providing a similar range of products from small local businesses, whilst also providing direct safe routes across the canal for residents to gain access to and from the town centre. Changes in landform and a new iconic bridge provide accessible connections as well as raised social space and viewpoints. In addition, new parkland provides much needed social and ecological green spaces currently lacking in the town centre.
