Is there less community spirit around than there was?

That’s hard to measure in any scientific way, but I’d say that local action, volunteering to help others, is alive in East Lancashire and doing well.

Take two brilliant examples which Blackburn with Darwen’s Mayor, Coun Karimeh Foster, and I witnessed last weekend.

On Friday evening we were at Little Harwood Community Centre, for a truly uplifting award ceremony for the young people who’d refurbished the community centre.

It had become very rundown.

A team of youngsters, ably led by Arif Mukadam, spent weeks planning the makeover, persuading traders to donate materials.

Then they slogged away with preparation and repainting. There was a residential weekend in the Lake District which was not only enjoyable but very educational too.

The younger population in Little Harwood is mainly of Asian heritage, as were all the recipients of the awards. But this is not a community of “parallel lives”, to use the jargon.

The loudest cheers of the evening were for Ronnie and Sandra King, lead volunteers at the community centre, who have done astonishing work.

Saturday morning and the Mayor and I found ourselves in an Indian-style monsoon, in Higher Croft.

We were there for the opening of the all-weather Multi Use Games Area (MUGA for short). This cost £56,000.

The funds for this had been raised by the Higher Croft Action Group, led by two residents of the area, Christine Robinson and Pat Cocker.

Higher Croft has had its share of problems over the years. But it’s a very different, more tranquil, and in my view happier place than it was a decade or two ago, when parts of it were, frankly, out of control.

That’s gone.

Many have made the difference, but none more so than Christine and Pat.

The greatest aspect of the work in both areas is that the impetus has come not from any “policy” imposed from outside, but from the initiative and enterprise of local people.

That’s the best kind of community action.