REGARDING the current grumblings yet again because we Darreners dare to step into the boundaries of them there Blackburn folk.

I, together with many others, visit Blackburn on very rare occasions.

When I do, I see investment, refurbishment, fancy glass buildings, that's after I have spent 20 minutes travelling along Mincing Lane to be greeted by the numerous Pay and Display machines and other means of financial robbery our beloved council have plonked here and there to lighten your pocket.

I don't wish to put the cat among the pigeons, but I am in a place that quite obviously is a blight to the mighty Blackburn -- That's Darwen, in case anybody has forgot.

We are still here, working away, even if we aren't worthy of having any money spent on us, even if the resident parrots in the town hall deem us to have £700 a year less spent on each of us and even if our livelihoods are being taken away from us.

Despite being disregarded by our so-called big brother council, we still get up, do our duties, pay our council tax and are slated because of some obscure traffic calming method, which, incidentally, if you add up the costs for those and all the roundabouts that Blackburn has now built, it probably comes to more than Darwen's entire town budget.

Give us what's ours, re-open our town hall, collect taxes that are from Darwen to be spent in Darwen. Re-name the council of Blackburn We're A Celebrity Vote Us Out Of Here.

Whoever stands at the next local elections with the view to handing the town back to its people gets my vote -- and I bet there are thousands like me.

MIKE MOORE, Greenway Street, Darwen.