THE revamp of Blackburn's shopping centre will finally start in October - with a flagship store to spearhead the £66m scheme, bosses revealed.

Clothing giant, Primark, will take the anchor site at the redevelopment, which will stretch from Debenhams to Textile Warehouse and include rundown Lord Square.

Bosses at London-based the Mall said the scheme will take a year to complete and will cost £20million more than first projected because of extra costs incurred by a year of delays.

And chief executive Ken Ford said the scheme would provide a dramatic boost to the shopping experience in the town.

Chiefs at Blackburn with Darwen Council, which owns a small part of the shopping centre, said they hoped the revamp would breathe new life into the town centre.

Traders and opposition councillors also welcomed the scheme as vital to the future of Blackburn.

About 20 new shops will be created inside with a new £5million market on the ground floor.

Council bosses have not decided what to do with the existing market site yet, but it is thought that it will be retail and leisure. Traders wanting to continue with the three-day market are to be offered open-air stalls in Ainsworth Street.

WH Smith and clothing store New Look have taken larger shops than at present in the revamped centre and the Mall said it hoped to announce other stores soon.

Lord Square, which includes TJ Hughes's 57,000sq ft store, is expected to be demolished in October, and ground preparation works have already started.

Bosses at TJ Hughes said they were unable to comment on whether they had been able to find an alternative site in the town.

Primark will have a 50,000sq ft store but the new three and four-storey section, which will comprise an additional 250,000sq ft, will bring the total size of the centre to 639,000sq ft.

The final go-ahead by Mall chiefs brings to an end uncertainty that has surr-ounded the redevelopment of the shopping centre.

The Lancashire Telegraph launched a campaign in 2002 calling for Lord Square to be pulled down by the then owners, Edinburgh-based Standard Life.

In June 2003 Reit Asset Management bought the centre and drew up a £15million scheme to put a roof on Lord Square.

The company was forced to do a U-turn after not wanting to include entr-ances on to Church Street, but the plan was scrapped when the Mall took over the centre in August 2004.

It has since drawn up the vastly improved plans.

Work was supposed to start last autumn but has been delayed by planning red tape, delays in agreeing deals to move existing shops out of Lord Square and "slippage"

In January the cost of the scheme had risen to £60million because of inflation and the rising price of steel.

Mall Bosses said the new total was higher still due to inflation and because they had included extra features like more escalators and because the original costs were only estimates. Ken Ford, chief executive of the Mall, said: "The confidence of these key retailers in either coming to Blackburn for the first time or expanding their repres-entation is hugely positive for the town "

He said he was delighted that two thirds of the new space were already pre-let before work had started.Primark director Breege O'Donoghue said: "We have been looking for suitable opportunities in Blackburn for some time."