PUBLIC opinion is divided on whether Rawtenstall's main shopping street should be cobbled rather than covered with tarmacadam.

Questionnaires delivered to 9,000 homes in the town have failed to deliver a cut and dried answer on how Bank Street should look for the Millennium.

The only conclusion is that everyone who returned the questionnaires agreed that the street should be improved with the help of a £250,000 Heritage Lottery grant.

Councillors meet on Wednesday to make a decision on the scheme, dubbed Back to the Future. They have until September 8 to submit their detailed plans to the Heritage Lottery.

The Bank Street blueprint also includes replacing the pavements with stone flags and raising them to the level of shops and this has won the approval of disabled people, says Councillor Alan Fishwick, chairman of the council's Engineering and Planning Committee.

Questionnaires have been collated by the council's planning department and the figures are due to be punished tomorrow in time for the meeting.

Coun Fishwick said the number of questionnaires returned had been slightly disappointing, but those returned showed a fairly even split between votes in favour of the granite setts and votes against.

He added: "It's clear people want to see the street improved. We now have to decide how. A number of people had very strong opinions, but generally speaking it's a question of arguing about what we should do rather than whether we should do anything."

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