LOOK, will people please stop drawing attention to Blackburn town centre and all its many attractions.

Just the other day I had a client enter my salon requiring a haircut just as I was about to have lunch at one of the many alfresco pavement cafes in the town. I mean, it takes me the best part of a week to visit all the new smart coffee houses in the centre as it is.

"Can you come back after lunch?" I said. "Well," he said, "I have just spent 40 minutes in a traffic jam to get to your salon and it could be another week before I can afford the parking fees in order to get my hair cut!"

"I have spent 40 years of my life trying to build up my client base in Blackburn and here you are polluting the town centre wanting to spend your hard-earned cash in my shop just as I was about to go out for coffee," I said.

"Why don't you join me for lunch? -- we could count the number of shoppers on Church Street for a couple of hours. Maybe if we use the fingers on both hands, we could count up to double figures."

"I can't," he said, "I have to meet my wife in Preston. She is over there doing the weekly shopping."

"Why Preston?" I said.

"Well," he said, "she feels welcome in Preston."

After I had cut his hair, I said: "Why don't you ask your wife to do your shopping in Blackburn?"

"Well," he said, "she can't afford the time to try and find her way around the orbital route and the cost of parking as well!"

"But we do serve lovely coffee," I said.

JEFFREY STONE, Fleming Square, Blackburn.