Leeds & Liverpool canal: park planned for 20-mile stretch

The park would run along a stretch of the canal from Blackburn to Pendle

Ambitious proposals to create a huge canalside park alongside Lancashire's "original superhighway" are being pored over by four of the county's councils.

The plans would transform a stretch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which was completed in 1816, in east Lancashire.

A feasibility study has been unveiled. It is backed by local councils, conservationists and an arts group.

They said the plan would reinvigorate and reinvent "this great 19th Century infrastructure" for the 21st Century.

The Pennine Lancashire Linear Park is supported by Lancashire County Council, four east Lancashire councils on the banks of the canal, The Canal & River Trust and arts programme The Super Slow Way.

The study will see how viable it is to create the park along a 20-mile (32km) section from Eanam Wharf in Blackburn to Barrowford Lock in Pendle.

Funded by Lancashire County Council, Arts Council England and the Canal & River Trust, the study makes the case for unlocking the assets of "this long swathe of blue and green bio-diversity to create multiple opportunities for "people to live, play and be inspired and productive; to learn new skills and build a new, greener future for themselves and their families".

They said the report was "intended as a call to action to everyone who is interested in building a sustainable future for Pennine Lancashire".

Councillor Phil Riley, Blackburn with Darwen Council's Executive Member for Growth and Development, said it was "an area that is central to Lancashire, full of historical value and is really ready for regeneration and rebirth".