THOUGH we are told that there was nothing sinister in Coun Ashley Whalley being ousted by his Labour colleagues on Blackburn with Darwen Council from a key cabinet post, he seems to have paid the price for attracting too much controversy.

But, give him credit, Coun Whalley resolutely defends himself and takes his downfall on the chin. "That's politics," he stoically says.

Yet, if he refuses to concede that he got anything wrong, I wonder if he can explain the 'success' of his orbital route and the closure of the Church Street route in removing so much 'through' traffic from Blackburn's town centre - when nothing of the sort seems to have happened?

A glance at the daily traffic jams on Railway Road, Bridge Street and Darwen Street suggests that plenty of drivers still want and need to visit the town centre and that the opening of the round-the-houses orbital route and pedestrianisation of Church Street has only increased the congestion elsewhere.

The unapologetic Coun Whalley suggests this was visionary. Others might describe it very differently.