NOT content with already having made Blackburn's railway station one of the hardest in the country to reach by car, the so-called "experts" behind planning and highways at Blackburn with Darwen Council seem to want to make getting into the town centre virtually impossible.

Slicing my way through the carefully-worded council agendas with their mind-numbing jargon, I see that councillors are considering "increasing pedestrian flows", "restricting traffic flows" and adding street furniture to Church Street, Darwen Street and Mincing Lane..

It seems to me that these people are trying to blind us to the fact that what they really want to do is pedestrianise the three congested roads which allow drivers into the town centre from the south.

How far, exactly, does "restricting traffic flows", "increasing pedestrian flows" and introducing "street furniture" stop short of complete pedestrianisation?

Of course, the whole plan to keep drivers out of the town centre was supposed to go hand in hand with the ambitious ring-road scheme.

But even though the council is now admitting that the Blackburn Inner Relief Road is unlikely to ever get off the drawing board, these faceless people are quite happy to press on with their plans, oblivious to the effects this will have on traders already reeling from the ban on A-boards and street displays. The council's deputy chief of regeneration says he would like to see motorists making more use of Barbara Castle Way, the only completed section of the ill-fated relief road project. Maybe he would like to pull his town plan out of his back pocket and turn it the right way up. The problems these moves will bring will affect those in the south of town, not the north.

We are now being told "limited improvements" will upgrade the existing orbital route. What orbital route? Could they be talking about the ridiculous detour that I and many other drivers have to take when they try to get to the train station from Bolton Road every day? The one where I have to negotiate the complex circus of traffic lights near the Darwen Street bridge, plough up to the top of Lower Audley Street, go over two mini-roundabouts, along Higher Audley Street, down the winding hill of Ciceley Street, wait for the traffic lights, turn left onto Salford and then wait for yet another green light as I turn into Railway Road?

The planners say their idea will bring more business into town through creating a more pleasant atmosphere. But sending visitors from the Darwen direction on a needless detour round Audley is hardly going to enhance the town's image.

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