THE recent closure of Blackburn's County Hotel to make way for new homes has highlighted the lack of bed space in the borough.

The sort of chain hotels that have sprung up throughout the country in the past decade beside main roads and in town and city centres do not exist within the borders of Blackburn with Darwen.

And that's bad news when it comes to attracting those in industry and commerce to the sort of meetings and conferences that build an area a reputation as THE place to do business.

With that in mind plans for a £2million hotel, leisure and office complex on the site of the former Lower Darwen Paper Mill should be welcomed.

The offices, which developers say could employ 700, promise the sort of jobs that we lack in East Lancashire and which generate spending power that could help to bring a new prosperity to Blackburn and Darwen town centres.

Such white collar jobs, by adding to the diversity of employment, will also help to protect our standard of living from being hit hard by sudden downturns in individual sectors.

We have all seen the devastation of areas that have relied for employment on single industries like, for example, coal, shipbuilding and steel.

The proposed development looks like being yet another positive spin off from the M65 and shows how infrastructure investment - fought for long and hard nationally and locally - can improve an area's prospects.

You have only to look at the companies now in business at Guide to see the success of the motorway corridor in boosting jobs.

But moving towards the town it does seem odd that Blackburn doesn't have a single central place to stay and begs the question of how hard our civic leaders have been pushing to attract a good hotelier.