IS it not time that Blackburn with Darwen Council was applauded for its decision to hold a French market in what was once Blackburn's principal street?

It is most appropriate as it is in keeping with the council's magnificent reconstruction in Church Street of a Normandy Landings beachhead -- hence the French connection.

This Labour-controlled council should stop clowning about and tackle the real issues affecting people -- such as their own rapidly-declining market, once the finest in the North West, the serious state of housing instead of just tarting, the rapidly-deteriorating infrastructure and the ever-increasing pile of rubbish and litter that is proliferating throughout the town.

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.