AN UNDERPASS that pioneered the use of classical music to ward off vandals has been branded ‘disgusting’ after being continually targeted by litterbugs.

Murals of dolphins on the walls of the path under Salford by Blackburn Market have also been defaced by graffiti and a pram has been dumped at the bottom of the steps.

The underpass is just yards from the site of Blackburn’s £66million shopping centre - due to open in 2011 - and there have been calls for council bosses to ensure the rest of the town is not left behind by the extensive regeneration planned for the next few years.

Fleming Square hairdresser Jeff Stone said: “I walk that way very often, and it’s a disappointing state for the area between the town’s transport hub and its market to be in.

“The sights and smells under there are disgusting.”

In March 2008 council bosses commissioned a local artist to paint images of dolphins in the underpass, after claiming vandalism was costing taxpayers £10,000 a year.

But two weeks later, with the paint still drying, graffiti had already been daubed on the head of one of the dolphins.

Yesterday the Lancashire Telegraph also spotted litter eyesores in Mincing Lane - where part of a chair had been dumped alongside beer cans - and on the corner of George Street and Bridge Street.

The issue became a hot political topic earlier this year when a councillor, Lib Dem member for Sudell Paul Browne, branded the residents of the borough “dirty sods” in a council debate about litter.

And opposition councillors have hit out at changes to cleaning rotas that saw 10 litter-pickers replaced with street-sweeping machines in a cost-saving measure.

According to the latest government survey of residents, just over 51 per cent of people in Blackburn with Darwen are “very or fairly satisfied” with the council’s record on keeping public land clear of litter and refuse.