BLACKBURN with Darwen Council is set to buy the former Thwaites Brewery site for redevelopment. It has teamed up with Maple Grove Developments Ltd, part of the Eric Wright Group, to pay for the purchase and regeneration of the seven acres of cleared land. The site on Penny Street in Blackburn town centre has been empty since 2018 and will cost several million pounds to buy. The new partnership will look at a range of redevelopment options from commercial development through to leisure uses or new houses and flats. The site’s future use has long been a concern to the council which in 2012 was involved in a tug-of-war with Thwaites over the company’s plans to sell it to Sainsbury’s for a superstore, which were later abandoned.