The Regional Park is a unique way of joining together the countryside, towns, villages, businesses and recreational facilities of East Lancashire. Covering the whole of East Lancashire, the Park is improving where we live and where we work, by making the best use of our superb natural environment.
The Regional Park is an exciting way of linking culture, heritage and the arts with the natural environment, helping to forge a positive new identity for East Lancashire.
The Regional Park is the first of its kind in the North West and is managed by the Lancashire Economic Partnership. Work began to develop the Regional Park back in 2000 with an initial grant of £5 million from the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Since then over 300 hectares of woodlands have been planted and over 15kms of new paths, cycleways and bridleways have been developed with the ELWOOD tree-planting and land improvement initiative. This network of recreational and commuter cycleways, bridleways and footpaths link together urban and rural areas for the first time, making it possible to mix business and pleasure. An example of this is the Arran Trail in Blackburn which is both a nature trail and a cycling link, connecting homes in the Shadsworth area with employment sites.
The Park will soon feature the Panopticons – one for each district of East Lancashire - that will become icons for the Park, attracting local people and visitors. The Panopticons will have both an aesthetic and functional role, taking the form of shelters, viewing platforms or beacons, located at elevated sites and marking out key access routes into the Park.
The Regional Park is East Lancashire and it is for East Lancashire's residents, therefore community involvement is paramount. The Land project is an exciting series of creative, educational arts projects inspired by the stunning landscapes of East Lancashire. Working alongside artists and designers, adults and children are helping to create distinctive environmental improvements such as woodland trails, works of art and way markers.
The work on the Regional Park complements other urban regeneration schemes such as the ELEVATE programme which also aims to improve the East Lancashire environment by tackling housing problems through renewal and refurbishment.
