THE label "award winning council" is a label which needs to be used with care. Tell that to an irate resident whose bin has not been emptied on time. It's a bit like putting petrol on a fire. The ire will not be dampened but made worse.

Nonetheless, it's a great deal easier sticking up for a council - whose performance relative to other similar councils is so good - than it would be if we were constantly on the back foot defending the near indefensible.

And the good reputation makes a tangible difference to the funds which the Borough can command. If I go in to see a Minister to argue for cash for particular projects, housing renewal or new roads for example, the fact that Ministers and their officials know that they are dealing with a council which is competent and professional can, and has, often tipped the balance in our favour.

One small (but telling) illustration of why the council is ahead of the pack is the care its taken over the last twenty or more years to measure what's been going on in the Borough, through a series of publications, "The Changing Face of Blackburn with Darwen".

The latest edition came out last month. It's fascinating, and heartening, to compare what it tells us, with where we were all those years ago.

Take unemployment: 20 years ago, in 1984, 18 per cent of males, and five per cent of women were out of work, giving an average for both of 11 per cent. For women, the proportion unemployed had been pretty stable between 1980 and 1984. But this was partly, if not largely, because in those days many women who lost their jobs or couldn't find work tended to drop out of the labour market, and therefore the statistics, altogether.

But for men the situation was bad. For white men, the number out of work nearly trebled in five years from five per cent in 1980 to 14 per cent in 1984. But for Asian men the situation was horrific In 1980 eight per cent of Asian men had been out of work, above that of white males, but in the same ball-park. By 1984 this figure had risen over five times to an astonishing 43 per cent. Put it another way, nine in every 20 Asian men on the dole.

The reason for this collapse in work for Asian men was very simple. They had been recruited into the country and the town at a time of labour shortage, and filled low paid jobs in mills and works which the white population would not do. They were then disproportionately hit hard by the wave of closures in the early 1980s and lacking other skills found it more difficult to get other work. This also had the effect of turning the Asian communities in on themselves, dividing the town more starkly than before.

Well, it's been a long journey from then to now, and I am far from claiming that everything is rosy. But the jobs situation has been transformed. The latest edition of "The Changing Face" shows unemployment at levels I never dreamed of.

Unemployment is now below five per cent, whilst the number of people claiming unemployment is 2.4 per cent and both figures are at the national average. I do not have the figures broken down by ethnic groups (I am on a plane, again!), but whilst Asian unemployment is still above that for the white population, the relatively buoyant labour market has benefited all communities.

There was an associated problem in the mid-eighties - the low skill base in the town. We are still here below the national average, but thank God, I say quietly, that the Council is award-winning - not least for its better than average effort and achievement in raising the performance of youngsters in our schools. This is the biggest challenge of all.