BLACKBURN and Darwen could find themselves lagging even further more prosperous parts of the country if the borough fails to live up to the ambitious targets set down in the new Community Plan, claims a council boss.

The 2020 Vision, Blackburn and Darwen's Community Plan, outlines how the council and Blackburn Partnership alongside many community and voluntary groups will work together over the coming years.

But executive director for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, Graham Burgess, warned failure to meet the targets could leave the borough far behind.

He said the borough still had a low wage economy and high levels of ill health compared to other parts of the country and the community plan was the way the council and other other local organisations would work together to boost living standards for local people.

He said: "If our aim is to raise our living standards to be the same as the rest of the country and if we don't have this joined up approach we could end up falling even further behind."

The Community Plan includes a range of targets in seven key areas which were chosen after a year long consultation process.

Each council is now required to create a community plan following recent legislation.

The launch of the plan was held in King George's Hall, Blackburn, and also included a performance by the youth drama group Action Factory.

The Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Councillor Jack Bury said the importance of the plan lay in its relevance to future generations. He said: "As we enter the new Millennium it seems a good time to bring all the interests in the borough together and look forward to what we can do in the next 20 years."

Malcolm Doherty, leader of the council, said the plan had been used by the government as an example of best practice to other councils.

He said: "We will use it as the basis of the things we do over the next 20 years to make this borough a better place for the people who live in it."

Peter Sharman of the Blackburn Partnership, which will oversee the groups working together on the plan, said: "The targets are challenging, most certainly, but if we all pull together as a team then very achievable."

In each of the seven areas chosen the community plan lists the community and voluntary groups responsible for achieving the targets, plus one lead partner which will take overall responsibility for meeting that part of the plan's requirements.

Every six months reports will be sent to the Blackburn Partnership showing how organisations are progressing.

Mr Burgess said funding for achieving the plan's aims would come from existing funding to the many partnerships leading the plan's implementation.