BLACKBURN Shopping Centre is the only retail outlet to be sold off by its owners, bosses have revealed.

Standard Life owns five other shopping centres throughout the country as well as having joint-ownership of one in London. It also owns 22 out of town retail centres throughout Britain.

The company, which has owned the centre since 1993, placed it on the market this week for an undisclosed sum, and says it has already been targeted by a number of potential buyers.

A spokesman for the firm, which ploughed £15million into refurbishment in 1995, said there were no plans to sell off any other outlets.

She said: "Blackburn is the only one of our centres which we have put on the market."

The news of the sale was welcomed by traders, MPs and Blackburn with Darwen Council, who see it as an opportunity to bring much-needed investment into the town.

Standard Life has been criticised for not improving the Lord Square area of the centre -- leading to a huge campaign by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph for action. Ronnie O'Keeffe, president of the Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade, said new owners needed to invest in the centre to make it work and felt Standard Life had "run its course" in Blackburn.

Nobody from the company was available to explain the decision to sell although Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council said Standard Life was in the process of reducing "its exposure" in town centre shopping centres.

He added : "The sale of shopping centres is not uncommon as companies change their priorities and financial targets.

"Standard Life is an investment company and in line with its policy of recent years it is adjusting its investment portfolio to reduce its exposure in town centre shopping centres.

"The market understands this and Standard Life has decided now is the appropriate time to put the Blackburn centre on the market."