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HRH visits Burnley in Lancashire to see how six of his charities can help regenerate the town

21st February 2008

The Prince of Wales today visited Burnley in Lancashire to see a number of projects launched by his charities in an effort to promote the regeneration of the town.

His Royal Highness has pledged the support of six of The Prince’s Charities - Business In The Community, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, The Prince’s School for Traditional Arts, In Kind Direct and The Prince’s Trust - to work in partnership with Burnley Borough Council, local businesses and other government and voluntary organisations in taking forward the revitalisation of Burnley.

The initiative stems from a project that The Prince of Wales developed in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in 1985. After a large factory was closed down, His Royal Highness brought together the local authority and businesses to establish a regeneration programme for the town to increase employment opportunities.

Following a visit to Burnley in 2005 to see the work of The Prince’s Trust in the area, The Prince felt that a similar initiative could again prove to be beneficial.

Upon his arrival at Burnley Town Hall, His Royal Highness chatted to many of the 100 people who had gathered to welcome him.

The Prince then took part in a 30-minute meeting, chaired by Burnley Council's Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow and attended by representatives of his charities, to discuss the town's regeneration plans.

The Prince spoke passionately about creating a sense of wellbeing and confidence by improving the built environment and talked about how young Muslims had benefited from becoming involved in Mosaic, a Muslim mentoring programme run by his charity Business in the Community.

The Prince then met will meet faith leaders, representatives of community faith groups and teachers and students who were participating in a workshop being run by The Prince's School of Traditional Arts which aims to teach arts and crafts skills that have profound roots in all the major faith traditions.

The children were building a tent which will mimic the pattern drawn by Venus as it travels around the Earth every eight years.

The Prince joked that the students were trapped inside before asking: "Is it half-term? Bad luck."

Mrs Saba Rifat, a tutor of The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, said: "He was asking about what work I'm involved in because I'm a former student of his institute in London.

"He is quite inspired. He's seen my progress because I do meet him quite regularly so he catches up with what's been going on.

"He has always supported bringing different cultures and diversities together."

Nicole Lockwood, 13, said: "I thought he'd be posh but he was nice.  I didn't think that anyone famous like him would come to Burnley."

The Prince travelled by coach with the various dignitaries on his tour of the town which lasted most of the day.

First, His Royal Highness opened a workshop and unveiled a plaque at engineering firm BCW during a visit to the Lancashire Digital Technology Centre. He also made a speech about the work his charities were doing in Burnley.

The company, which supplies parts to the motor and aerospace industries, is taking an active role in The Prince’s Business in the Community project by encouraging disengaged youngsters to work for them.

The Prince praised company boss Alec Cassie for the "remarkable" work his business was doing with young people.

His Royal Highness also thanked Burnley Council Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow and North West Regional Development Agency boss Bryan Gray.

In his speech, The Prince said he hoped that the small contributions of his charities would help him in the alliance for the crucial project to regenerate Burnley.

He added: "I look forward to seeing the results of this partnership in years to come."  Click here to read the speech in full.

His Royal Highness also met a group of Muslim young people who will shortly join the Mosaic programme, business leaders who have participated in The Prince’s "Seeing Is Believing" visits to Burnley, an In Kind Direct donor and beneficiary and a young person supported by The Prince's Trust Business Programme.

On his next engagement, The Prince tapped his feet and smiled broadly as he watched a performance by The Prince's Trust Acting Up programme at Burnley Youth Theatre.

Huma Khan, 14, said: "He complimented us on our performance. I thought he would be more posh but he was acting really normal.

”We thought he would be rushing but he wasn't.

“The performance went a bit wrong but we carried on."

His Royal Highness also met a group of young people starting a peer mentoring programme with support from The Prince's Trust and schoolchildren and a head teacher involved in The Prince's Trust XL Programme.

The Prince then went on to the Burnley SPACE Youth Bus, where he met youngsters taking advantage of the facility.

The SPACE Youth Bus is supported by business leaders who took part in two "Seeing is Believing" visits, one led by Allan Leighton of the Royal Mail Group and another by Philip Green of United Utilities.

Youth bus user Matthew Marrem, 14, met The Prince. He said: "He asked if Burnley Football Club are doing well. I said they were doing all right.

"He's nicer than what I expected, he's chilled out and relaxed.

"He said they would try to get more buses going and he is going to try to organise it."

For the next part of his tour, The Prince embarked on a 40-minute barge trip along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

His Royal Highness and representatives of his charities, such as The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, had a close up view of the Weavers' Triangle area.

It is widely recognised as one of the most important Victorian industrial districts in the North West and has been described as "Burnley's sleeping giant".

Plans are afoot to transform the Weavers' Triangle into a mixed use development of housing, offices, restaurants and bars through a £250 million regeneration programme, whilst maintaining the site's distinct historical character.

At the end of the day, The Prince of Wales reconvened the meeting with the Borough Council, his charities and local organisations.  The Bishop of Burnley, the Right Rev John Goddard, said: "The meeting went extremely well.

"It was good that The Prince made time to meet the faith leaders - we have got a good story to tell in Burnley about inter-faith dialogue.

"He was very interested in our activities to create greater understanding across communities."

Click here to read The Prince’s speech.

Click here to read the Focus feature on The Prince's visit.

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