This is one of Rossendale’s major transformational projects that wouldn’t have started without the support of the local community and PEER’s networking activities. This will be a long-term project over several years to create a network of sports based activities that will bring visitors into the region, create employment, new businesses and support the wider economy of tourism businesses.

What is the Adrenaline Gateway?

It is a brand building and facilities development program that aims to fundamentally shift perceptions of East Lancashire, and transform its economy by stimulating the growth of the life style sports tourism sector.

Importantly the AG will be based around what is already happening in East Lancashire. We have Ski Rossendale, a backbone of bridleways and informal mountain bike trails plus national standard Water Ski and Trails Biking facilities. The Adrenaline Gateway program will build on this to deliver an enhanced network of facilities joined up by a common brand and events strategy and supportive infra structure.

Also known as life style sports the AG encompasses the fastest growing sports in Britian today – including Dry Slope Skiing, Mountain Biking, Water Ski, Quad Biking, Climbing, Trials Biking, Horse Riding, Hill Walking, BMX, and Skateboarding. In this respect the market position is very strong and the AG addresses a currently unmet need for convenient facilities. The Adrenaline Gateway will also be a platform for a wider leisure, culture and arts offer, which again will build on existing strengths.

The Adrenaline Gateway will be an accessible and unique leisure offer. On the doorstep of millions of North West residents the AG will provide every possible opportunity to participants of all levels and backgrounds – from beginners to the elite – to learn and to practice adrenaline sports and to otherwise enjoy the widest possible range of outdoor athletic, leisure and cultural activities. This is about bringing sport within the reach of everyone.

In short the Adrenaline Gateway Programs approach is something that we know works.

Adrenaline gateway latest news

New Bike Trails for Lee Quarry

The Adrenaline Gateway steering group has secured over £200,000 of funding to develop a 8km network of technical mountain bike trails in Lee Quarry, Rossendale. These trails will help riders develop skills and will hopefully attract many new visitors to Rossendale.

Gary Hood, Chief Executive of Rossendale Leisure Trust, who chairs the steering group said: “We now have funding in place for a number of technical trails and skills areas that will take in some of the quarries most exciting features. Seeing world class sport on our doorstep can be a great inspiration to young people and the Adrenaline Gateway is all about building on this, helping them to get out there and have a go.”
Work is due to start on trails this autumn with completion next spring. Funding is through DEFRA’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund and Lancashire County Developments Limited.

Trials triumph - Britain’s best bikers come to Rossendale

BRITAIN’S top mountain bike trial riders headed to Rossendale for the fourth round of the British Mountain Bikes Trial Championship. This was the first event to be hosted as part of the Adrenaline Gateway Project. Over forty of the top riders in the country competed in this gruelling event at Lee Quarry on Sunday 12 August. During the event over two hundred people made the trek up into the quarry to watch these incredibly skilful riders being put through their paces.

Gary Hood, Chief Executive of Rossendale Leisure Trust, who leads the project said ”A big part of the Adrenaline Gateway plan is that we attract an increasing number of great sporting and cultural events to Rossendale. This Mountain Bike event is the first of many and as we carry on improving and developing facilities we will increasingly make Rossendale and Pennine Lancashire the place to come to for adrenaline sport”

County Councillor Doreen Pollitt, Deputy Leader of Lancashire County Council said: “Events like this help to change people’s perception of the area and this will help to put the Adrenaline Gateway onto the map. We hope to encourage more people to visit and experience just what Lancashire has to offer. Hosting the Championship is just the start of a fascinating and exciting future.’’

Councillor Duncan Ruddick, leader of Rossendale Borough Council said: “I was delighted to see Rossendale host this event. Hosting activities, coupled with new facilities, will bring an increasing number of visitors to Rossendale to experience our great countryside and town centres. This will boost our economy and create a whole lot of business and employment opportunities to local people.”

The venue was chosen by British Cycling, with the support of Lancashire County Council, for its dramatic landscape and technical challenges. The event is an exciting taste of things to come as the Adrenaline Gateway project gathers momentum.

Doals Community Centre, Weir Update September 2007back to top >>

Weir Community Partnership (WCP), a group of Weir residents have been working towards their vision of building a community centre in the village for over four years. This growing village is two miles outside Bacup town centre and is surrounded by open moorland. Picturesque as this is, if you are lucky you can watch the deer frolicking on nearby hills, it is sadly lacking in the basic amenities. The village only has one small shop and two pubs! With limited public transport and no buses on Sunday’s the resident were feeling increasingly cut off. Older people are house bound and young people have difficulty getting to places of entertainment.

Although there have been new housing developments in recent years bringing affluence to the area it has contributed to the newcomers failing to identify with the spirit of the village, not surprising because it has no heart!
WCP’s vision was for a new centre on the foundations of the old church, pulled down when it went into decay. The centre would offer a venue for community meetings, training, youth club and children’s facilities, church meetings and a place to hold your party! The Weir Baptist Church has freely donated the land that housed the former church to the project. However the budget was over £600,000 and a donation from the Church and local fundraising still left a huge amount to find.

In the summer of 2005 the group entered their project into the WRG Village Hall & Community Centre Challenge 2005, run by Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd, owners of the nearby Deerplay Quarry. PEER had supported this project from the beginning and contributed to developing a Business Plan and supporting information ready for the presentation.

Just before Christmas they heard they were in the final five out of 90 UK projects. As a finalist they were guaranteed an award of at least £125,000 with the opportunity to double this to a total grant of £250,000. The Doals bid was the only one entered into the competition from the whole of Lancashire. To secure the £250,000 each group had to make a presentation to a judging panel on 14th March 2006 at the House of Commons. The following May the group returned for the final announcement held at the House of Commons.

WCP is delighted to announce that they won. After the celebrations the hard work started!

The timing of the award was crucial to obtaining further funding from the Bacup & Stacksteads SRB Challenge Fund, which was in its final year. Particular thanks go to the Bacup & Stacksteads Community Partnership Board and Rossendale Borough Council who pulled out all the stops to make this project possible.
Long negotiations with the local Council and Lancashire County Council regarding planning permission (which we had already sorted but new staff insisted on starting again) and the requirements for extra parking spaces and traffic restrictions dragged on and on and on….
Eventually however, after members of the community put in vast amounts of time to meet every demand the work finally started. The support of Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd has been invaluable in getting us to this stage.

The Doals Centre is due to be completed by February 2008. PEER and REAL are working with WCP to develop a plan for its long term sustainability.

Fitzpatricks Rawtenstall Issue 2 September 2005 back to top >>

Fitzpatricks herbal health, known to all as Britain’s last temperance bar, has for the past eighteen months been working with PEER to develop its unique bottled drinks range. Chris Law, Fitzpatricks owner, is well aware of the great potential of their brand and products but he knows he needs more. “We needed to understand things from a much wider perspective. We had a gut feeling about the right way to go but needed some help in working that through.” Realising that this was a big piece of work PEER was able to use its relationship with Lancaster University to nominate Fitzpatricks as a project for the Business School. Two master’s students were selected to work up a marketing and production plan with Chris. They carried out research and developed a report and marketing plan. Chris was very pleased with the results, “Talking through their findings Fitzpatricks herbal health, known to all as Britain’s last temperance bar, has for the past eighteen months been working with PEER to develop its unique bottled drinks range.
Chris Law, Fitzpatricks owner, is well aware of the great potential of their brand and products but he knows he needs more. “We needed to understand things from a much wider perspective. We had a gut feeling about the right way to go but needed some with the Business students really helped clarify things for us. “We now know what we need to do and why. There’s a lot we need to sort out and we know its not going to be easy but now at least we have a road map to navigate by and with PEER we know we have support if we get stuck”.
PEER Board members supported Chris at a recent customer feedback event.

Fitzpatricks Update Issue 3 February 2006
Fitzpatricks will soon be re-presenting their soft drinks bottles with new labels and bar coding. In response to significant interest from retailers and supermarkets Chris Law, Fitzpatrick’s owner, is planning a big expansion in production with a new bottling facility and office. PEER is helping him put together the necessary business plan and
funding applications.

Bombox – Moyra Franklin Issue 2 September 2005 back to top >>

The Bombox is the brainchild of Moyra Franklin, who was practice manager of a law firm in Manchester at the peak of the IRA mainland bombing campaign. Moyra had two close calls with bombings. A prototype of her Bombox was then put to the test with the massive 1996 Manchester bomb. Nearly 500 businesses did not survive, but Moyra's firm was up and running again within hours. In essence the Bombox is a common sense package of everything that a business needs to get back on its feet after a natural or man-made disaster. Plus, lots of practical advice from someone who’s been there and done it.
It was last summer that Moyra first approached PEER for support as she worked her idea up into a business plan. Bombox has been on the market since January and awareness of this unique product is building. Now Moyra needs to find partners to take her take her product further. In particular she wants to get into the US. She has re-contacted PEER and asked for some help in finding the right partner. She said “It’s good to be able to talk to someone who already knows me and the business. Andy gave guidance as I worked through the original concept and so I’m now hoping that PEER can help me take Bombox to the next stage”

Snakes and Adders, Bacup Issue 2 September 2005 back to top >>

When Peter and Lindsay Foster saw a kid’s play frame advertised on ebay they didn’t hesitate in putting in a bid. This was something they had wanted to do for years and this was too good an opportunity to miss. A nail biting couple of hours later they had their prize at a knock down price. Now it was a question of turning it into a business. Lindsay is a highly experience child minder but needed support in putting a plan together.
Would it all add up? Could they make a living out of it? How much could the business afford in rent and wages? How to promote it? All key questions that PEER was able to help answer. Peter said “I’m OK with numbers so I didn’t want someone to just tell us what we could or couldn’t do, we want to work it out for ourselves. Andy took us through the process but it’s our business plan and it’s made us feel really confident that if we get the costs right we will have a successful business.” The big problem has been finding a suitable property. That’s where PEER’s network and Board members have been useful. They have been looking for the right property. Over the past couple of months Peter and Lindsay saw plenty that were almost but not quite right. They’ve kept at it and finally with the help of one of PEER’s board members may now finally have found the right place. We won’t tempt fate but with luck we have will Snakes and Adders opening near the centre of Bacup before the end of the year.

Kids@Play update Issue 3 February 2006 back to top >>
Renamed from Snakes and Adders, Peter and Lindsay Foster are now much closer to realising their dream of a Kids Play centre in Bacup. They have just taken on the lease of a sizable unit in Bacup, just off Burnley Road and started work on fitting out. In the past couple of months they have got planning permission for their business and been buying the equipment they will need to operate it. With a second play frame, soft play kit and catering facilities they will be able to accommodate up to sixty kids and parents at any one session. If all goes according to plan Kids@Play will be opening by early April.

The Alchemy Club at Alder Grange , Rawtenstall Issue 3 February 2006 back to top >>

We’re often asked if we work with young people. The answer is of course ‘yes’ – it’s never too early to start thinking about your own business. In recent months PEER has been working with Business Link’s Alchemy project and has supported the establishment of a ‘real’ business club at Alder Grange. The Alder Grange Alchemy Club is a real business based around the new Community Cinema initiative at the school. It involves a motivated group of year 10 students who have invested their own money in the enterprise. They sell the tickets for the show and refreshments on the night. There’s nothing better than learning by doing and in he run up to the first show one of the big lessons learnt is that things don’t always go to plan as tickets proved hard to sell over Christmas. A big effort in the last week, with everyone pulling together, sorted things out and the opening night played Wallace and Gromit to a full house. The refreshments side of the business managed to pay off its investment on the first night and from now on will be building profits and reinvesting in new stock. From market research on the first night different products will be offered on the second. The team is now also selling their wares at other school events. PEER will continue working with the club as the business grows. For details of next event contact Clare Foster 01706 223171

Berrisford Advertising, Bacup Issue 3 February 2006 back to top >>

Pete Berrisford of Berrisford Advertising has come up with a great way of promoting Bacup businesses whilst letting people know about his new DISPLAY ART print and design business. He has organised a promotional board to go outside the royal court theatre with spaces available at just £15 per month.
The board will be updated on a monthly basis.