HBC: Accrington Food Festival 2018

The annual Accrington Food Festival will be held again this year in the town centre on Saturday June 2nd.

Entry is free and there will be over 60 stalls selling all kinds of delicious food, plus there will be cooking demonstrations, D-Day commemmorations plus a cake workshop and much more!

HBC: Leader's Viewpoint - May 2018

Now the elections are over, it’s back to the important business of moving the Borough forward. The regeneration of Accrington town centre remains one of our top priorities and it was fantastic to see Accrington Stanley’s team and management arrive in style on Broadway aboard an open top bus, greeting over two thousand cheering supporters who packed into the town centre to celebrate Stanley’s promotion and league win in the glorious Bank Holiday sunshine.

We’re tremendously proud of Accrington Stanley and our congratulations go to Andy Holt, John Coleman and all the players and staff. It’s been a gripping season and there’s been a buzz around the WHAM stadium with a feel-good factor which has rippled out right throughout the town, especially on that marvellous 6th May celebration day with thousands of jubilant supporters singing and cheering for Stanley on Broadway. They’ve made history, well done Accrington Stanley!

The day before, on Bank Holiday Saturday, another sizzling hot sday in the sunshine, Accrington Town Centre bustled as thousands of people flocked to the town for brand-new event #AmazingAccrington – Music Festival Live! It was a fabulous day, which increased footfall in the town and showcased the skills and talent of local people and businesses. Families were enjoying it and the sheer volume of people attending was testament to just how great a day it was.

We have lots more exciting events planned for Accrington town centre over the summer, including the ever popular Accrington Food Festival on 2nd June. It’s set to be the biggest one yet, with Continental Markets on Friday 1st June and Saturday 2nd June. Then on Saturday 1st September we’re looking forward to another new event for the town centre - the Chocolate Festival, Car Cavalcade & Soapbox Challenge.

Also this summer recycling is set to become easier when we roll out a new recycling system, replacing the current sacks and box system, with two new wheeled bins for each household. We’ll all be able to recycle much more efficiently and our streets will be cleaner, as the rubbish that sometimes blows out of the sacks and boxes on windy collection days will be contained within the wheeled bins, which are also much easier for residents and collection crews to handle.

Information packs with all the details about the new and improved recycling scheme will be delivered to residents in the coming weeks, with the new bins starting to be delivered later this month and the scheme starting in June for some residents and July for others.

Other big news is that it’s all go for the funding to upgrade Highams Playing Fields to offer an improved range of facilities for local people to take part in sport, including a full-size floodlit 3G artificial pitch; multiple junior and adult football pitches; a rugby pitch; an artificial cricket wicket and brand new changing rooms for the whole community to use.

In these days of austerity the Council simply doesn’t have the money to fund a project like this and so I want to say a big thank you to Accrington Stanley Community Trust and all the companies and bodies giving generously to make this multi-million development happen, providing such a tremendous resource that the whole community can benefit from.

And finally my very best wishes to you for a lovely summer, I hope we’re all in for lots more of the glorious Bank Holiday weather!

Cllr Miles Parkinson
Leader of Hyndburn Borough Council

Hyndburn Election 2018: Go to vote!

Today is local election day and the polling stations are now open until 10.00pm.

The Hyndburn Labour Councillors try for the most part to be as non-political as possible but today we would ask everyone to vote Labour.

This is a purely local election and nothing to do with national politics so we would ask people to go and vote based on who they think will do the best for their area, not the party leaders in Westminster. Hyndburn Labour have balanced the books and delivered £10m in investment across the borough without borrowing.

Please don't reward the Tories for cutting our money, vote Labour today.

Hyndburn Election 2018: Still time to return postal votes

If you are registered to vote by post and still haven't returned your ballot papers there is still time to do so.

Postal voters can still use post boxes until the last scheduled collection on 3rd May or alternatively drop their completed ballots in sealed envelopes at their nearest polling station.

Cllr Ken Moss said, "There are currently around 300 postal ballots in Rishton which have not been returned and we would encourage people to use their vote. You can still cast your vote up till 10.00pm on May 3rd by going to a polling station."

PCC: Police numbers reduce by over 20,000 since 2010

Police cuts have reached crisis point as we have the lowest police numbers since March 1985 (http://bit.ly/2uNjnTZ)

Do you think the Conservative government's cuts to our police force are right?

These reports show that police force numbers have dropped to a 30-year low, with a drop of 0.7% to 123,142 police officers across England and Wales (2016-17). Shockingly, this is the lowest total number of police numbers since 1996.

PCC Clive Grunshaw said, "Reports also highlight that the number of soldiers has fallen by 7,000, proving that the recruitment and retention crisis in the armed forces is getting worse under the Tories’ watch. I have stood up time and time again to deplore the Government’s cutting of 1,000 police officers across Lancashire."