SEVERAL boarded up houses in the Southfield area of Nelson have been given a facelift.
It’s all part of a move by Southfield Partnership to improve the lives of local people by enhancing their local environment.
“Bored with Boards” has seen properties on Pine Street have their wooden boards covered with cleverly designed plastic boards featuring attractive looking window scenes.
And the boards are so realistic that many people don’t notice they’re there!
It was the idea of local clergyman the Rev. James Booth and Chris Simpson from Phoenix Family Support.
Mr Booth said: “Southfield residents told us these boarded-up properties were the thing that bothered them the most about their area.
“We realised that for a relatively low cost, cleverly designed panels could be clipped over the boards to instantly transform the look of the properties.”
Mrs Simpson said: “We took our idea to Southfield Area Residents’ Association, one of the partners of the Southfield Partnership, who secured funding from the Fair Share Trust to enable this work to be carried out.”
Local company Textstyles, based in Colne, produced the plastic boards.
Barry Jordan, from Textstyles, said: “With permission from their owners, we took photographs of a few different attractive looking windows in the area and used these to create the boards.
“We even created shadows in the right places, to make them look as life-like as possible.
“The end results are very impressive – you really do have to look twice to tell they’re not real.”
Coun. Sheila Wicks, one of Pendle’s councillors representing Southfield, said: “I’ve received lots of positive feedback about the scheme - it’s helping to make people feel better about their area.
“The plan is to continue with the scheme on other streets in Southfield.”
Tim Horsley, from Pendle Council’s Localities Team and chairman of Southfield Partnership, said: “This is just one of a number of projects being done to improve the lives of residents in Southfield. The property owners we’ve worked with are highly delighted with the results.
“The Partnership and the Localities Team have also been improving local grot spots plus working with Nelson and Colne College students and the Inspire project to clean up front gardens.
“It’s the little changes like this that will all add up to make big difference to the Southfield area.”