CAMPAIGNERS believe voting for a regional assembly could be their best chance to get extra cash for Darwen.

The row over how much funding Darwen gets from the council took a new twist last week when statistics showed people in the town had more than £700 per person less spent on them last year than people in Blackburn.

But council bosses insisted that if the two rural wards around Darwen were removed from the equation, the five urban Darwen wards compared favourably with Blackburn's urban wards.

If the region votes 'yes' for an assembly later this year, a shake-up of Lancashire's council system will create one layer of local government beneath the assembly.

In East Lancashire, they could involve Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley combining, with Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale also joining together.

Alternatively, an East Lancashire-wide authority could be created, or all power handed up to Lancashire County Council.

For Roy Davies and his fellow Darwen campaigners, who would like the town to one day control all its own affairs, the prospect of a regional assembly is good news.

He said: "The whole reasoning behind regional assemblies is transferring power down.

"If Blackburn with Darwen became part of a Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley council, it couldn't all be run from one place.

"We'd hope area committees would be set up, one of which would be in Darwen so people in Darwen could take the decisions on money spending in the town.

"It is what people in Clitheroe would expect from Blackburn, so we should expect the same."

Darwen councillor Karimeh Foster agreed that Darwen would be better off under a regional assembly.

She said: "We are always second best after Blackburn and the money doesn't seem to be shared properly especially in my ward. We never get anything in Whitehall because it does not meet the criteria the government is looking for.

But local trader Eileen Guy does not think a regional assembly will help Darwen's cause.

She said: "From what I've read about a regional assembly I believe things would still be run from Blackburn and the people of Darwen would not have any more say than they do now. "