IN the fourth part of our five-day analysis of how far Burnley has come since the riots 10 years ago, we get the view of Lord Clarke, the man who produced the report into the troubles.

JUST two conversations, 10 years apart, demonstrate how far Burnley has come since three nights of violence blighted the town.

Lord Tony Clarke, who chaired the task force established in the wake of the disturbances, believes the chats, with youngsters from the same Burnley school, mirrors the advances made since the dark days of June 2001.

He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “When I was visiting Burnley, around 2001, I went to the former Towneley High School and I asked some of the children a question.

“They said they had no future in Burnley, in terms of employment, and they could not wait to move out.

“But now when I go back to Burnley, to speak to the children at Unity College, they say ‘Burnley is our town’ and they are proud of it.”

Even after a lifetime in politics, the role played by ‘Lord Clarke of Hampstead’, leading the riots task force, is one of his proudest achievements.

The Labour peer remains adamant that the ‘riots’ were disturbances fostered by criminal elements, which only later led to race-related confrontations.

The former Labour Party chairman and National Executive member was asked by Burnley Council to become the independent chairman of the task force established to probe the reasons behind the conflict - and engineer a way forward for the borough.

Lord Clarke said: “I had no involvement with Burnley, other than as a football fan I knew where Turf Moor was. It was a place just off the motorway for me.

“I am still amazed that they took to me and gave me such co-operation, just some Cockney who had been brought in to be the chairman.”

He immediately attempted to dump all political affiliations and allegiances so he could be considered a truly impartial task force chairman.

Public hearings were held around the town, including some sessions at Turf Moor, which allowed as many people as possible to air their views.

No fewer than 15 main recommendations were made, under a variety of headings, which have served as a benchmark for Burnley’s regeneration ever since.

The peer added: “The town is clearly resilient and they have reacted positively to what occurred over those three nights.

“They have done a great job in building on the recommendations that the task force made, in particular the economic regeneration, which has been of great importance, as has the Elevate programme on the housing front.

“It did give me a great deal of satisfaction to see some of the grottiest housing in Daneshouse and Stoneyhome pulled down.”

Lord Clarke still has a number of friends and contacts in Burnley and has returned on a number of occasions. Later he was asked to play a pivotal role in the development of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

While he has seen massive improvements, he does have some worries for the future.

“My concern, as a friend of Burnley, is that the austerity measures, do not bite too deeply, and that my prayer is that there will not be too many setbacks, particularly for some of the hard-working staff at the town hall who were very supportive of our work”, he said.

“I am 79 and I have been involved in a number of things but it is a great comfort to me to see decent people, who had suffered some grim hardships, rise up as they have done.

“On the cover of our report we said: ‘If Burnley speaks, who listens?’.

“Clearly the people of Burnley listened, and people outside of Burnley, like the former Deputy Prime Minister, which led to the likes of the Elevate programme.”

Lord Clarke's verdicts

COMMUNITY RELATIONS:

TASKFORCE RECOMMENDATION: More opportunities should be created for people from different backgrounds to mix, cultural diversity should be promoted...and a better explanation should be made of funding decisions affecting different communities.

WHAT HAPPENED: Under the umbrella of Building Bridges Burnley, an enormous amount has been done to promote integration across different communities.

The work of the Burnley and Pendle faith centre, at the Barden Lane campus, also cannot be underestimated.

And there are opportunities within the likes of Burnley Youth Theatre for people from diverse backgrounds to interact.

LORD CLARKE’S VERDICT: “It is a bit of a truism but it just goes to show what people can achieve if they work together.”

HOUSING:

TASKFORCE RECOMMENDATION: Report authors considered that a housing renewal fund was a priority, efforts should made to tackle exclusion, rubbish clearing policies should be addressed and new social housing projects supported.

WHAT HAPPENED: Hundreds of the worst homes have been pulled down and a major facelifting programme carried out across the borough under the Elevate scheme.

However the project has now been axed by the coalition government and the work had only managed to focus around south-west Burnley and Burnley Wood.

The council now has one of the best records in the country for prosecuting landlords and householders over dirty back yards.

LORD CLARKE’S VERDICT: “The Elevate programme and Max Steinberg were extremely helpful and they got through an awful lot of work.”

EDUCATION:

TASKFORCE RECOMMENDATION: Task force members believed a debate should be encouraged regarding quality education provision.

WHAT HAPPENED: The £250million Building Schools for the Future programme created state-of-the-art new schools for Burnley.

But there have been mixed results so far with several of the schools found to be failing at times over the past five years. Burnley’s GCSE performance was rated bottom in the country based on the 2009 results.

However experts predict the town will soon feel the benefit of the investment.

LORD CLARKE’S VERDICT: “There is so much goodwill in schools to create conditions for pupils to succeed and I saw this through my involvement with the BSF programme.”

REGENERATION:

TASKFORCE RECOMMENDATION: A neighbourhood renewal strategy should be produced and that the Government should recognise the hardships Burnley was facing, and provide appropriate funding.

WHAT HAPPENED: The £81million new college and university campus would not have become a reality without Northwest Development Agency cash.

Burnley and Blackburn also both benefitted from Whitehall’s Prevent programme, from 2007 onwards, to tackle violent extremism.

However transformation of the former Michelin site has stalled, approval has only just been given for the new shopping centre and work is still in the pipeine for the Weavers’ Triangle.

LORD CLARKE’S VERDICT: “Economic regeneration has had a great impact on Burnley.”