City or not city?

I WAS asked to join Blackburn Partnership way back in the eighties.

Councillors of that era were very supportive of me when I was building my business and as I became more successful I wanted to take more interest in the development of the town I grew up in and cherish.

Local businessmen like me have to bring customers and investors to our factories and businesses. It's a vital part of keeping businesses and jobs alive in the town. During the eighties I would visit European towns on business and be impressed by the modern buildings and tidy thoroughfares. Modern factories, sensible planning and tree-lined roads making them generally much more attractive.

Joining the partnership gave me a chance to help in the re-development of Blackburn with Darwen. It started with City Challenge, £37m to spend over five years, followed by SRB £21m over seven years, more SRB last month a further £25m and an Education Action Zone bid, giving an extra £3-5m to local schools.

This may seem a great deal of money but there's more. Every pound won from Europe or the Government in this way is extra to normal town expenditure. Not only that, it is often matched by private money by up to four-fold. All this adds up to a town that is looking more modern, is creating more jobs for its citizens and generally has dragged itself away from older, dying industries into 21st century technology. Not everything is perfect but the town has come on in leaps and bounds compared to a decade ago.

This money does not come easy. Town hall staff right up to the chief executive officer have to work very hard indeed to develop and write bids that compete with the rest of the UK, and Europe for that matter. They have to prove that businessmen and community leaders are not just supportive, but actively working for free on all the projects that make this town a better place in which to live. I can't remember not succeeding in a bid for money for this town - we win them all! Because town hall staff are modern, forward-thinking and write extremely sensible documents on how to spend the money, they and their partners are rewarded. But it's not just that - they go on to do what they said they'd do - they make the plans and dreams happen. They spend the money well, meeting targets and outputs in a most professional way.

In the future, serious regional issues may conspire to cut East Lancashire out of government and European cash. Blackburn with Darwen, together with neighbouring boroughs work together to keep East Lancashire right under the noses of prominent politicians - including Jack! City status is just one more way to keep this region prominent as a centre of productivity and high achievement.

We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

MIKE MURRAY, Stanley Street, Blackburn

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.