WHAT is most striking about the targets set out in the new Community Action Plan aimed at improving the quality of life for everyone in Blackburn and Darwen over the next 20 years is not just their boldness, but the belief that comes with them that they can be achieved.

And, surely, this positive attitude underpinning the far-reaching goals of the council and the partnership of police, health chiefs, religious leaders and voluntary bodies is the key to their success.

For, make no mistake, these ambitions covering virtually every aspect of community life -- from the economy and crime to health and the environment -- are demanding.

But -- together with action plans to earmark responsibility for progress being achieved -- it is the determination being displayed at the outset that makes them part of a credible strategy for the future and for turning Blackburn and Darwen into a place that is a prosperous, healthy, safe and pleasant place to live in.

Just how far short it falls of this perfectly reasonable objective can be seen in the targets' measures of how much needs to be done -- such as raising the towns' Gross Domestic Product from the present level of 85 per cent of the national average to 90 per cent; cutting burglaries by a third in the next five years; reducing teenage pregnancies by more than 20 per cent; and ensuring that 80 per cent of three and four year olds have a place in early education by 2005.

And these goals are just snapshots of the full extent of the plan's vision as it looks for real and measured improvements in not just the crime figures, health, personal wealth and education, but in the community structure, the environment and the actual appearance of the borough.

In all of this, a lot is being hoped for and a lot asked of the groups and individuals charged with bringing the goals to reality. But it is the clear conviction that it can be done that encourages us to share the belief of the plan's creators that it will be done. And it must be.