HAVING had plenty of controversy stalking their £11million proposals for the redevelopment of Church Street in Blackburn town centre, town hall chiefs are bound to welcome the positive interest shown today by top chef Nigel Haworth in opening a restaurant in the revamped thoroughfare.

This is particularly so as it comes only days after the planned pedestrianisation of Church Street was blamed for the closure of a family furniture store in nearby Darwen Street after more than a century of trading in the town centre.

And if the interest shown by Mr Haworth and business partner Craig Bancroft, who run the prestigious Northcote Manor hotel and restaurant at Langho, brings a significant boost to a plan that is the flagship in the council's regeneration scheme for Blackburn's heart, it will also hearten those concerned with the town's heritage.

For we are told that the award-winning restaurateur has had talks about re-opening one or more of the long-empty Pavilion buildings adjoining the Cathedral grounds which, as Grade II-listed Georgian edifices, are key features of Church Street that have for too long been excluded as assets for Blackburn's town centre attraction.

But in addition to the revival of these historical buildings, the prospect of the street's revival and that of the town's central area generally being led by the development of a top restaurant in the middle of BIackburn is one that should excite everyone who wants to see the town prosper and thrive as a major shopping and leisure centre against the competition from other towns and cities.

Already, we have seen highly-imaginative sculpture being selected by the council for the traffic-free street in which it has visions of creating a continental-style caf society of the sort that has taken root in Manchester's city centre. And with a top restaurant as an "anchor" development in Church Street, Blackburn may hopefully see the dream realised as its attraction and prestige grows with it.