My Hope for High Street Investment: Berry Lane

Berry Lane potential vision (before and after comparison)

Our High Streets are the heart of our communities — places where we meet, shop, and come together. 🛍️ ☕️ I want to see them thriving, not just surviving. That’s why I’m passionate about supporting local businesses, encouraging a vibrant mix of shops and services, and making sure our town and village centres remain attractive and welcoming. 🤗

When I have been speaking to people in Longridge, the High Street has been a hot topic. Now, I know ours isn’t the worst, Berry Lane is great! But when you see similar sized close-by towns like Garstang or Lytham thriving—or places like Clitheroe and Kirkham receiving huge investments to revitalise their High Street—it’s hard not to feel like we’re being left behind.

Last weekend, for instance, I was in Lytham on Sunday at 9a.m and popped into a café that was buzzing, and I couldn’t get a table because it was packed! I walked down the street and the same was the case in another cafe. That’s the sort of vibrancy I believe we need to look to and build on.

I’ve already been actively pushing for the Borough Council to introduce proper guidance on shop signs, frontages and facades in our conservation areas (Berry Lance being one of them, as well as, most of our village centres) — improving the look of the high street whilst protecting the character and charm that makes our town unique. For me, it’s about making our High Streets places people want to visit to boost the local economy and fostering pride in where we live.

Longridge has bags of charm and so much potential, but somewhere along the line, it seems to have lost a bit of its shine and we need to get it back.

If I am elected to County Hall, I will bang the drum for Longridge with Bowland, working hard to try and secure investment to help revamp and breathe new life into Berry Lane.

Below is an artist’s impression showing Berry Lane in Longridge as it is now, alongside a vision of how it could look in future with the right investment and care. This is simply an idea to inspire discussion — it is not a set plan, and there are no guarantees that this will happen. It should be seen as an example of the kind of improvements we could work towards.

Hats off to local CGI Artist - Kris Lee Taylor for his creativity in bringing the vision to life! You can see more of his work here - https://www.cgipro.co.uk/archive