GIVEN the traffic chaos stemming from the latest addition to Blackburn's inner ring route -- all throwing doubt on the wisdom of the council's plan to add to this mess by shutting town-centre Church Street -- I would have thought that regeneration supremo Councillor Ashley Whalley's attitude needs to be revised along with the plan.

For, with a 3,000-name petition against the scheme and 300 individual objections to the closure plan, Coun Whalley accuses opponents of "trawling" for support and suggests that people who signed the petition don't know what's what.

Yet even if that is so -- though I cannot see what is wrong about a protest group doing a good job of selling their case -- is it not a bit off that, at this stage, the champion of the scheme seems to suggest that he is poised to dismiss opposing views? If he truly believes in public consultation, he should not appear so ready to bulldoze this plan through.