I WAS saddened, but not surprised, to receive a telephone call from one of your reporters informing me that the Road Safety training Centre at Ewood, Blackburn, had been destroyed by a fire, after being vandalised.
In late May, when Lancashire County Council made the decision to "close the centre indefinitely on health and safety grounds" following damage and threats to staff, I contacted the county surveyor's department, who administered the centre, and the leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council which is to take over the running of the facility in April 1998.
I informed them that it was the view of the Blackburn Area Road Safety Association executive committee that the building would rapidly be reduced to a ruin if they did nothing to curb the vandalism. I also asked if they could find us some alternative accommodation. I received an unsatisfactory answer from the county council and am still waiting for a reply from the borough council.
I cannot believe that a valuable building in first class condition, which has had thousands of pounds spent on it in the last few years has been allowed to be destroyed by vandals in approximately ten weeks.
I can only assume that neither the county nor the borough council wished to continue to provide a road safety training centre with a fully-equipped lecture hall and a skid-pan for driver training, which must surely have been the envy of many local authorities in the country.
Blackburn Area Road Safety Association is continuing to run courses from another base.
R M HERON, Chairman, Blackburn Area Road Safety Association Executive Committee, Holly Bank, Entwistle, Turton.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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