A SUBWAY linking Blackburn train station with a new cinema and bowling alley remains sealed off -- two weeks after the new leisure development opened.

The subway, funded by Blackburn with Darwen Council, was built to link the town centre with Lower Audley Street and the Ewood and Infirmary areas, but will also be used by commuters and cinema-goers.

But they have found its gates locked, leaving them with a 10-minute walk around Darwen Street to get to their destination.

Peel Holdings, the company behind the leisure development, said the subway should open by the end of this week. But Network Rail, the company that owns railway infrastructure, said they were still waiting for Peel Holdings to hand the subway and car-parking facilities back to them before opening it.

Gerri Parker, 25, of Sunnyhurst Lane, Darwen, who took her 13-year-old sister to see the new Harry Potter film, arrived ten minutes late for the showing after finding the gates locked.

She said: "The only reason we came on the train from Darwen was because we thought it would be easier, but then we saw the gates locked and had to walk around.

"By the time we got there the film had started and we had to wait another hour for the next showing."

Keith Linley, a spokesman for Network Rail, said: "Technically, it is still a construction site so it should not be open."

He said they were meeting with Peel Holdings to thrash out the problem.