THE boss of Blackburn railway station buffet today called for tighter security following a break-in -- and she branded the town "a horrible place".

Wendy Ryan said she would have sold up and left if it were not for her contract.

Her plea to Railtrack bosses came the day after thieves broke in through the roof and stole £100 from the till, £1,000 worth of cigarettes and £700 worth of mobile phone top-up cards.

Three days earlier the neighbouring cabin cafe was also broken into and £100 stolen.

Wendy, who runs the shop with her husband, Derek, is four years through her seven-year contract and said: "It's frightening. I got here and the alarm was going and I could see all the tiles on the floor.

"It makes you sick. Blackburn is such a horrible place. I would be out of here like a shot if I wasn't tied to this place but I'll have to stick it out for about another three years.

"I want the station made secure 24 hours a day. They lock the front door at night but people can still get in at the back and there are no security cameras to see what's going on.

"The rail company have known about this problem for years. It's the sixth time in four years this has happened and they refuse to do anything about it. "You'd think with them spending all this money on the place they would put in better security."

Mandy Ayers, who has been working at the cafe for 11 years, said: "It's been like this ever since I've been here with them always getting in through the roof. It's about time something was done."

A spokesman for Railtrack said accepted no responsibility.

He said: "Nothing we have done regarding refurbishments at the station has affected the roof so if anybody is getting in there, they are not getting in because of anything we have done

"But as part of the refurbishment project, 15 CCTV cameras are due to be installed at the station by the end of the year which will obviously add to the security and pick up anything that people are doing that they shouldn't be doing."

He added that some security cameras were already in place and being tested at the station and inspectors were going to look at video evidence to see if they had caught the thieves in action.