STILL smarting at losing out again in its bid for city status, Blackburn with Darwen today finds that its efforts to boost the borough's prosperity by making it more attractive and better known are hampered by a sector of the community that really should know better.

For it is claimed that businesses would rather allow graffiti to remain on their property than pay to have it removed.

But this lack of both self-esteem and civic pride is not just disappointing, for coming from the business world where the image and identity of companies are well recognised as being crucial to commercial success, it is also stupid.

This outlook must be most frustrating to civic leaders -- when, as the immense efforts at town-centre renewal show, the council is doing its utmost to make Blackburn more appealing and increase inward investment and spending power. It also goes to considerable trouble and expense to remove graffiti from public buildings.

But, like the quest for city status, this correct concern for the town's image is not just a matter of prestige, it is also about making sure that the first impressions visitors and potential investors get of Blackburn and Darwen are not bad ones.

Yet in view of the apparent indifference of companies to the harmful effects of them having a run-down image, the council is now looking for solutions to the problem -- including the possibility of increasing expenditure on graffiti removal to £500,000 to provide a free service for property owners.

If it does, it will have had passed to it a buck which firms should have picked up themselves if they had any sense of civic responsibility and commercial acumen. It is a community responsibility and not just the council's. Businesses should play their part -- for their own sake and the benefit and betterment of East Lancashire.