TOWN centres which thrive do so because they attract a wide range of people by having plenty to offer all ages.

Shops, restaurants, pubs, places to visit and a night scene are features which together cater for a variety of tastes and give town centres life by their varied appeal.

But balanced provision is the key and it is up to planners to ensure that private developers are not allowed to run riot and change the face of a town centre.

The fears of Canon Hindley and others about the prospect of a former furniture shop being turned into another nightclub or bar within a stone's throw of Blackburn Cathedral are quite understandable.

Already a large chunk of Darwen Street and the town centre has become a teen and twenties zone of bars and takeaways that are closed or virtually deserted during the day but packed with life (and fast food containers) between 11pm and 2am on any Friday or Saturday.

As a result there are few shops either at the town centre end of Darwen Street or in Church Street - nothing in fact to encourage daytime visitors to walk between the shopping centre and the new complex of stores on the other side of Darwen Street bridge.

The council has tried hard to create a pedestrianised area in Church Street and to attract a real cafe/restaurant to the long derelict Pavilions to keep the town attractive to shoppers. Their attempts are to be applauded.

But the fact is that Church Street, Higher Church Street and the northern end of Darwen Street have plenty of pubs, bars and takeaways but little evidence of retail activity.

And yet another bar/nightclub will not only sit uneasily alongside the cathedral and its grounds but do nothing to dispel the image to daytime visitors (especially those arriving by train or bus) that Blackburn is a drinkers' rather than a shoppers' paradise.