Lancashire County Council has approved funding of more than £2m to support the development of an ambitious project to regenerate Brierfield Mill in Pendle.

The £2.15m approved by the council's leader Jennifer Mein includes £1.5m for infrastructure and public realm works, including redeveloping the marina for leisure use, as well as £650,000 to support the relocation of Lancashire Adult Learning from its current base in Chorley to Brierfield Mill (Northlight).

The ambitious £32m project to transform Brierfield Mill into Northlight will create a new leisure, residential and educational destination which will provide a significant contribution to the regeneration of Pendle, whilst maximising the economic potential of an important east Lancashire heritage asset.

Speaking about the project, County Councillor Jennifer Mein said: "This is an exciting project with the potential to transform the fortunes not just of Brierfield but of the area as a whole. Bringing together leisure, residential and educational facilities in this iconic building will create a host of opportunities for people from across Lancashire and beyond and provide a real boost to the local economy."

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Lancashire Adult Learning to Pendle which will join a number of other leading organisations at Northlight.

“They include Burnley Football in the Community, which will provide an exciting range of leisure facilities, and Training 2000’s new Cyber Centre.

“Pendle Council has worked closely with Lancashire County Council over the last 12 months to get to this stage of a massive project which will provide hundreds of new jobs,” he said.

The Northlight project is led by PEARL, a joint venture established between Barnfield Investment Properties Ltd and Pendle Borough Council. It has a total cost of £31.8m of which £21.8m is being provided by the private sector and £10.1m is being provided by the public sector. Pendle Council has committed £1.5m to the development.

Tim Webber, Managing Director of Barnfield Construction and a PEARL board member, said: “As Pendle based developers we’re extremely passionate about the Northlight development.

“It’s an exciting project for a stunning complex of historic buildings across a site of over seven acres.

“We’ve started work on the strip out so that the major transformation work can get underway.”

A £4.2m Growth Deal allocation in support of the project was approved by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) at its Board meeting in February.

In addition, the LEP Board has also approved £750,000 of Growth Deal Skills Capital funding towards the cost of relocating Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL) from Chorley to Northlight.

The new facility for Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL) at Northlight would support and deliver adult community learning across Lancashire by providing an administrative and delivery base for LAL as well as providing a centre in East Lancashire, which has the greatest demand in the county for community learning.