A PUB chief today said it was vital a Blackburn bar shut for six months remains as a pub.

The Boulevard, next to the railway station, is being sold off by Manchester-based auction house Fleurets, with an asking price of £85,000. The pub closed several months ago.

Derek Haworth, chairman of the area's Licensed Victuallers' Association, said: "The fact it is closed is a sign of how hard it is to keep pubs going. It is a big town centre pub and I hope that it reopens."

According to Fleurets website, the venue has the potential to be put to "alternative uses" and as well as the two downstairs bar-rooms, it has seven rooms on the upper two floors.

The pub changed its name from the Star and Garter to the Boulevard in August, 2000, when it underwent a refit. It had closed after licensee Dave Stewart was found hanged in the living quarters.

Since its change of name, it has had a succession of owners, including lottery millionairess Kath Brindle, who took on several pubs in the summer of 2001. She won £2million on the lottery in 1995.

Last year, when appearing in court charged with assault, Brindle claimed she only had £50 a week to live off and had "no capital" to speak of.

In June 2001, landlady Andrea Bennett, who worked for Kath Brindle, caused outrage among the town centre community by laying on steamy sex shows in the middle of the afternoon without a licence.

The Boulevard is one of two town centre pubs being marketed by Fleurets. The other is The Borough Arms, in Exchange Street.

For £20,000, buyers get the freehold and contents.

The website states that the sale is due to "ill-health."