I have grown up in Blackburn, lived there for 21 years minus a year I spent in Leeds.

My father always reminds me of how nightlife came from across Lancashire. Coaches would come from Burnley, Bolton, Preston and Manchester for a night out in Blackburn.

Now the coaches are taking the Blackburners to those destinations.

Unfortunately, our town centre is dead and the nightlife is dead. There is no life where there once was in this town and as much as I disagree with this idea, I believe the only way to save it is to inject booze into the town.

Create a nightlife, make some clubs, make some money. The solution isn’t to just open a load of new bars and clubs as that won't help at all. The best solution would be to bring new people in.

I have always thought, what would Blackburn University Centre be like if they had kept old tuition fees? £3,500 a year and you can do pretty much any course. Students would then think: ‘Hmm, might go there, I won’t get into as much debt.”

And before you know it, more applications and more students. That would then lead to a student village which would demand more clubs and nightlife which would ultimately turn Blackburn into a student city/town.

Benjamin James (via website).