ACCRINGTON was rolling out the red carpet and doff its collective cap to the Princess Royal today.

The Princess is visiting Accrington this afternoon to officially open the New Era community centre. It was Lancashire's answer to the Millennium Dome -- the county's largest project to hail the arrival of Y2K -- but appears to be achieving so much more than its London big brother. Reporter DAVID HIGGERSON went to see what Princess Anne could expect to see there...

APART from the fact New Era was Lancashire's most expensive Millennium project and that it immediately draws attention to itself -- it may not be a dome, but it is painted purple -- it is hard to spot the similarities between this renovated building in Accrington and the much-maligned Dome.

While the Dome shut its doors for the final time in December, bringing to an end what Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans described as an '£800 million farce,' New Era remains open after some £2million, most of which came from the Millennium Commission, was spent on renovating it.

Part former ballroom and part former technical college, the New Era centre is the ultimate definition of 'urban regeneration.'

Unlike many modern buildings, the New Era building is a maze of brightly-painted corridors and twisting staircases which weave around the building -- a complete change from the damp, dripping rooms and alleys which greeted builders on their arrival.

It opened last October and has been gearing up to today -- the day it was being officially opened by the Princess -- ever since.

Unlike the Dome, which was branded elitist and out-of-touch, New Era has been a big hit across the town, attracting all ages and sections to the venue.

Barry Emmett, who first had the vision for the new community centre in the early 1990s and worked tirelessly on the project, said: "We hold everything here from sequence dances on a Saturday night to youth clubs every night of the week which are attracting more than 100 youngsters every night.

"We even catered for an Asian wedding here last year which more than 1,000 people attended."

The battle for cash began in 1996.

Barry, along with more than 30 local people, travelled to London to appeal for Millennium cash.

They sang and they danced and brought a London street to a standstill.

It is an exercise they repeated in 1998 -- and they got more than £1 million to plough into the project.

When the Dome went overbudget, the people behind it asked for more cash. The Accrington team didn't.

Barry added: "We simply took out some of the the things we could live without, like a Mediterranean garden in the centre of the building. We have all the stuff we need at the moment."

He isn't wrong. Comprising a large hall, sports hall, youth club, countless meeting rooms, a kitchen which has the equipment to deal with both modern western cooking styles and the traditional Muslim techniques, a gym, a cybercafe and music studio, New Era has quickly become the heart of the community.

Barry said: "The community is paramount here. We asked them to design things to go in here.

"Some youngsters suggested we paint snakes, because they shed their skins to change and grow in the same way these buildings have.

"The older generation, who remember this as a food kitchen and dance hall from the war years, asked us to paint dance steps. We did because, after all, this is their venue."

Organisations like the local CVS, Hyndburn Youth Council, Lancashire Education Referral Unit, Jigsaw ( a scheme which helps challenged young people become cooks) and the county's youth and community service all use the centre now, along with 25 community groups. Princess Anne arrives at 2pm today to be given a guided tour by Barry and County councillor Dorothy Westell.

Barry said: "It is a day we have been waiting for and it will give us the chance to show off something the borough is right to be proud of."