It was a joy to spend the Bank Holiday weekend in the sun in Pendle. Like many, I was out enjoying the weather and found myself busy with so much on.
I was fortunate to have friends with young children up to stay for their first ever visit and was delighted to be able to show them our area in all its glory. From the grand architecture of buildings in Colne, our thriving independent shops to our country pubs it’s fair to say they were impressed and will be back soon. Living in Pendle it is sometimes easy to forget how beautiful our area is. The simple pleasure of enjoying our local parks and wandering around Wycoller are hard to beat.
With events like Bands on the Square in Barnoldswick and the Pendle Powerfest at Nelson and Colne College, there was a lot to see and do. A particular highlight was Mayoral Sunday, which took place at St John’s in Higham. Our new Mayor Cllr James Starkie and his Mayoress Janet put on an excellent event as they start their Mayoral year, with profits going to the Mayoress’s six nominated charities, all of which work on helping disadvantaged children and younger people in Pendle.
It is vital that all children receive support and where they face disadvantage or other difficulty, it can be really challenging to provide the help they need. I often hear from parents about the difficulties in finding the right school for their child, particularly if their son or daughter has special educational needs. There is a need to create more school places dedicated to supporting these children in Lancashire.
I was pleased therefore by an announcement last week of a £50 million boost for create new school places and state-of-the-art facilities for children with special educational needs and disabilities. All local councils will see a minimum increase in their budget of £115,000 with most receiving at least double that.
The Government also announced £680 million to create 40,000 more good school places, to add to the 825,000 that have been created since 2010. We have seen this in Pendle where a number of schools have been turned around, improving the opportunities the next generation have locally.