AFTER substantial discussion, the Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade executive has agreed that the time is right for them to restate their declared oppositon to the proposed closure of Church Street to through traffic.

At no stage since the consultation process began has the local authority successfully demonstrated to us any of the benefits which this scheme claims to bring to the town centre retail core.

The promise of yet more sterile traffic-free areas in the centre of the town will, in our view, affect the willingness of new investors to look at Blackburn with any confidence.

The experience of towns like Oxford and Cambridge and the dire consequences that traffic-free areas can have on a town centre must be avoided at all costs. The health of any provincial shopping centre depends so much on the diversity of shops and the welcome that awaits the car-borne and public transport shopper. The chamber believes that the proposed orbital route around the town will play an important role in making for a much more pleasant shopping experience, provided that funding for the missing link from Barbara Castle Way to Montague Street is forthcoming from central government.

All this can be achieved without the need to block the progress of inter-circular traffic within the core of the retail area.

A very recent survey among 226 small independent traders in the town centre has revealed huge opposition to the proposed closure of Church Streeet and it is now apparent that a major multiple store also has grave concerns over the proposals for the town centre.

The chamber, which represents more than 250 businesses in the town, remains adamant that the views of these traders and the shopping public should be made crystal clear to the council and its officers.

This chamber has offered a way forward with an alternative plan which should be discussed at the highest level so that we may yet succeed in regenerating our town for the benefit of traders and customers alike.

PETER HOBKIRK, President, Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade, Strawberry Bank, Blackburn.