IT'S strange that Blackburn with Darwen regeneration supremo Ashley Whalley used the call by anti-pedestrianisation campaigner, hairdresser Jeff Stone, to save the Victorian street cobbles unearthed in the town-centre revamp to accuse him of delaying the job with his objections.

For what does the Labour councillor think the consultation process into this major scheme was for. A rubber stamp for the project?

Cobblers! Mr Stone or anyone else with doubts about this scheme had every right to have their say - and, more importantly, to be heard.

It's called democracy, Coun Whalley - and the fact that the man who became prime focus for the concerns of traders and others over the council's proposed closure of the main thoroughfare, Church Street, subsequently stood for the Tories at the local elections, does not diminish that right.

But also cobblers is Coun Whalley's specious pooh-poohing of Mr Stone's plea for the preservation of the cobbles exposed during excavations in nearby Darwen Street on the grounds that they are part of the town's heritage, of which little enough has escaped previous council-led redevelopment, and because they would 'set off' the adjacent Cathedral precinct area.

For, in similar thou-shalt vein, the councillor declares the notion is a no-no, saying the cobbles, which were covered over by tarmacadam are not in good condition, too low down and unsuitable for modern transport needs.

He seems to have forgotten that four years ago when Rossendale Council embarked on a similarly controversial revamp of town-centre Bank Street in Rawtenstall, the Heritage Lottery Fund made it a strict condition that cobbles and tramlines that had been also been covered over for ages, should not only be exposed but be left in the state they were.

What, then, is the difference - other than Coun Whalley taking the opportunity to impolitely impute that the thorn-in-his-side Mr Stone is a time-waster twice over?