TWENTY years ago victims of domestic violence had virtually nowhere to turn for help.

Whether police paid any attention to criminal assaults at home depended very much on the personal initiative of the officer who was called to the scene.

The culture didn't encourage proper investigation of situations that could prove very time consuming and difficult to resolve or bring to court.

Self help groups and support workers hardly existed outside a handful of big cities and too often domestic violence was a subject which was not talked about and to which blind eyes were turned.

Today thank goodness the situation has changed. Domestic violence is tackled head on but that doesn't mean the problem has gone.

On the contrary during most of 2001 Lancashire Police logged the equivalent of one incident of domestic violence every 12 minutes and in the Blackburn with Darwen area alone they went to 2,445 incidents in 2001/2.

Today we hear that to meet demand a new refuge for victims is to be built in Blackburn and it will be a beacon project for other towns across the country. Women and their children will have control over their own lives and the time and space to give a chance for physical and mental wounds to heal.

The need is highlighted by the horrifying statistic that women suffer an average of 37 assaults before they go to a refuge.