IMAGINE it's a summer's evening, and you are at an open-air theatrical event. Polite applause ripples around the small amphitheatre as the actors leave the arena, in front of three beautifully-restored Georgian buildings.

Now imagine you're on Church Street, Blackburn, and you have an idea of one of the projects which didn't make it off the drawing board when Blackburn with Darwen Council decided it wanted a pedestrianised haven instead of a clogged-up commuter route.

Ian Randall, the artist appointed to draw up the plans for Church Street and the Georgian Pavilions buildings, said: "I first got involved in 2000 as a consultant. The brief was to create something which made the Pavilions stand out.

"At one point the street was going to be designed as an amphitheatre around the Pavilions. That would have created a focal point.

"But the council was very keen on a continental feel which is why the paving outside the Pavilions has been designed the way it is. It is just waiting to be used for pavement cafes or something like that."

The amphitheatre idea would have involved building seating into the gradient down Church Street to create an open-air arena.

In the end, the council plumped for the Transitions project, five sculptures which cost £240,000. Work on the £2.5million cobbling of Church Street was completed in spring 2002. The five statues were due to be in place by summer 2002. It's now summer 2003, and the last one has yet to arrive.

Boll, Gin, Mercer - after the Mercerisation process developed for the cotton industry in Accrington - and Nep are in place. All relate to the process the cotton plant goes through before becoming a finished product.

But while the well-documented hitches - injury to Ian, a blow-out at the foundry smelting parts of the sculptures, fibre-optic cables which are too short and the hunt for a eight-tonne piece of granite for Lumen - have brought Ian within an inch of ditching the project, he believes the statues will be the worth the wait.

He said: "When it comes to commitment to public art, Blackburn with Darwen is way ahead of anywhere else. It will make real waves with this one. It should look stunning, and in effect, instead of just having five sculptures, Blackburn will have an outdoor art gallery.

"It is all designed to give Blackburn something nowhere else has got. These five couldn't go anywhere else. They are intrinsically linked with Blackburn, through its connections to the cotton industry and the fact that maps of the town through the ages are cut into each one.

"Everyone says cities like Leeds are the places to go for culture. I disagree. In many ways, I think places like Leeds are culturally void compared to places like Blackburn, which will be so far ahead when this project is completed."

As for the theme of the sculptures, Ian said: "The council wanted art on the street. I wanted sculptures which made part of a series and so really stood out.

"I had done work in Bradford which looked at the textile industry and that was the obvious place to start in Blackburn.

"Apart of that, we had a blank sheet to work with. The council didn't interfere and while I appreciate the delays have been a political nightmare for the councillors, it has been a nightmare for me too. I already have the next project, for a council in Wales, due to start and they are snapping at my heels but I am not one for juggling two schemes at once. I want to get this one completed."

Coun Andy Kay, in charge of regeneration, shrugs off the suggestion it has been a political nightmare: "We looked at the amphitheatre idea, although I prefer the concept of an open performing area, but it just wasn't possible under the circumstances. As for Transitions, they will be worth the wait."