Owners should be bold - or sell to someone who is

In the last decade the council has faced an almost continuous challenge to try to ensure the town has a heart that is attractive enough to encourage the borough's residents to "shop local."

At the same time councillors have been conscious of the need to promote Blackburn centre as a place well worth driving to from other parts of East Lancashire.

Such motorists have money that must be spent within the area and not taken to retail complexes like the Trafford Centre if Blackburn with Darwen is to grow and prosper.

The rebirth of the rundown former Woolworths building as TJ Hughes, pedestrianisation of Ainsworth Street, work on the sixties-built shopping centre and on the market that once enticed shoppers from far afield were all steps in the right direction.

A new look bus station in the Boulevard and the £6million and a futuristic railway station, almost complete although more than a year behind schedule, aimed to bring our transport centres into the 21st century.

In the past few months making Church Street traffic free has proved a painful exercise as people in cars and buses faced huge disruption and delay while drivers tried to come to grips with the town's controversial orbital route.

But few would dispute that the concept of a visually attractive street with room to saunter or sit between the green oasis of the cathedral grounds and the bustle of the covered shopping centre is a great idea.

However, while so much effort has gone into large portions of the town centre one crucial area has been allowed to slide downhill.

It's no exaggeration to say that Lord Square stands out like a rotting, discoloured blot on the town centre landscape.

And it seems scandalous that when so much has been put into Church Street the main thoroughfare linking it with the shopping centre proper features monumental twin eyesores like the ramp to the upper level and the disused nightclub lift shaft.

The problem that obviously deeply frustrates many community and political leaders is that owners Standard Life, having withdrawn last year an £18million plan to make it look good, now say that the council must bring more shoppers in BEFORE they will spend that sort of money.

But it's a chicken and egg dilemma and the truth is that such an unattractive square WILL put off shoppers.

There are other big issues facing the town centre, of course.

Much good work has been done but the market still needs a great deal more invigoration, Penny Street is also a visual horror and we need to persuade more major retail chains to come to Blackburn.

But Lord Square is perhaps the most in-your-face negative in the town centre.

In Preston, Grosvenor Estates, headed by the Duke of Westminster who has roots in the region, have taken risks with retail development to keep that town ahead of Blackburn in shopping centre league tables.

If Edinburgh-based mutual assurance company Standard Life feel that they cannot be bold enough to invest in the future of East Lancashire they should sell Lord Square off to someone who will.

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