SPECIAL REPORT: Outrage over Sky News report that portrayed Burnley as a drain on the economy (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Of course they had an agenda, like the report on Shadsworth. People down south don't want to see a "good news" piece on the north, they want to be reassured that the "northern monkeys" are getting it worse than they are. Keep them smug and the world keeps turning!
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There should be no subsidies for any business in the south east, they should continue to move the civil service and other public sectors out of the south east, local authorities should be encouraged to purchase and use properties in "the north" (when a two bedroom flat in Hackney/Shoreditch can cost over £400,000 its criminal that London LAs have any housing stock!) Businesses that relocate should be given bonus grants etc

Lazy journalism by Sky News. Burnley is no worse than many other towns around the country. Like the LET report says, they came with an agenda and designed the report accordingly. Go to most town centres during the day and lots of the people walking around will be out of work. The people not there to ask are all at work!!!

Lazy journalism by Sky News. Burnley is no worse than many other towns around the country. Like the LET report says, they came with an agenda and designed the report accordingly. Go to most town centres during the day and lots of the people walking around will be out of work. The people not there to ask are all at work!!!

I work in Burnley and I see a lot of unemployment I also see lots of people queing up in Marks and Spencers food hall so its not all doom and gloom if a lot of the population can pay for more exclusive and expensive foodstuffs.

It's highly likely that only 2 out of 25 that they spoke to in the centre were unemployed (or unemployable). After all, those of us with jobs would have been at work...wouldn't we?

I had to laugh at the "Ten Reasons" - having lived in Burnley all my life it's just the same old tripe being regurgitated time and again -

The Weavers Triangle - and? Yes, it WAS the centre of the towns manufacturing, WAS being the operative word. It's allvery well renovating the buildings, the next thing is to get 100% occupancy.

Bondholders - a scheme to promote the area. I'd never heard of it until today.

The Todmorden Curve - whoopie-do. It wouldn't be so bad cutting journey times to Manchester if trvelling by train wasn't such a traumatic and expensive experience.

UCLAN - turning out more graduates than you can shake a stick at, a small percentage of whom come from the immediate locality, with little chance of getting a job at the end of it. When are we going to stop lying to our youngsters about the so-called "benefits" of tertiary education???

Aerospace - I'll give you that one, but it's hardly new is it? The East Lancashire area has been at the heart of aerospace engineering in the UK since the 1940s.

Burnley FC - the heart of the town? Riding high? They're mid table FFS after a woeful start to the season!

Prince Charles - has a special relationship with the town. Yes, and he talks to geraniums, too...

Retail - what? Where? I wouldn't shop in Burnley if you paid me. That's what the internet's for.

Diversity - since when did diversity and multiculturalism become a benefit to anywhere? Unless you call ghettoisation of whole neighbourhoods a benefit. ANd talking of benefits...

Schools - yes of course things improved. When you're close to or at the bottom, that's all you can do. Especially in a system where failure is not allowed.

Burnley. The place to be...

living in burnley i see this as a fair picture.

I don't live in Burnley but am not stupid enough to make such derogatory and negative comments about the place, when you consider the numbers of talented, innovative and entrepreneurial spirits that have come from that town.
There is hardly a field of anything that hasn't got someone from Burnley in it, from sport to finance. In fact, taken as an whole, Lancashire itself, is a positive diamond mine of pure talent.

For anyone to make such a defamatory report as this is doing themselves no credit whatsoever and brings into disrepute the way that the media.
If you try to conduct an interview at 7am on a Sunday morning, when all the shops are shut and the streets empty, could you extrapolate from that everyone has moved out of the place? Only a fool would do so and this piece of tripe is nothing more than that, foolish abuse of position of trust and misrepresentation of the grossest kind.

When Burnley born Paul Abbot wrote the TV series, Shameless, he should have had them place a warning at the beginning that it was a work of fiction, for the Southern idiots that think that people really live like that. Much as Rab C. Nesbitt comically portrays Glasgow, Carla Lane (Bread) and Alan Bleasdale (Boys from the Black Stuff) the same, in a light of totally black grisly humour, it's only because we have the true Northern grit within us all to laugh at ourselves in the face of what is a daily hardship of putting bread on the table and keeping a roof over our heads.
Every Sky subscriber in Burnley should write a letter of protest to both Sky themselves and the Press Complaints Council, expressing you opinion about such poor journalism.
Isn't Alistair Cameron, Burnley born, as well?

bikerjohn_uk wrote:
I had to laugh at the "Ten Reasons" - having lived in Burnley all my life it's just the same old tripe being regurgitated time and again -

The Weavers Triangle - and? Yes, it WAS the centre of the towns manufacturing, WAS being the operative word. It's allvery well renovating the buildings, the next thing is to get 100% occupancy.

Bondholders - a scheme to promote the area. I'd never heard of it until today.

The Todmorden Curve - whoopie-do. It wouldn't be so bad cutting journey times to Manchester if trvelling by train wasn't such a traumatic and expensive experience.

UCLAN - turning out more graduates than you can shake a stick at, a small percentage of whom come from the immediate locality, with little chance of getting a job at the end of it. When are we going to stop lying to our youngsters about the so-called "benefits" of tertiary education???

Aerospace - I'll give you that one, but it's hardly new is it? The East Lancashire area has been at the heart of aerospace engineering in the UK since the 1940s.

Burnley FC - the heart of the town? Riding high? They're mid table FFS after a woeful start to the season!

Prince Charles - has a special relationship with the town. Yes, and he talks to geraniums, too...

Retail - what? Where? I wouldn't shop in Burnley if you paid me. That's what the internet's for.

Diversity - since when did diversity and multiculturalism become a benefit to anywhere? Unless you call ghettoisation of whole neighbourhoods a benefit. ANd talking of benefits...

Schools - yes of course things improved. When you're close to or at the bottom, that's all you can do. Especially in a system where failure is not allowed.

Burnley. The place to be...

You forgot to mention that it rains a lot as well.
Meanwhile, I think life on the whole is pretty good. I think that there are many reasons but avoiding Sky, Daily Mail, Daily Express, ......... helps.

Sky could have gone to many of the old industrial towns in the North and come up with a similar report. The grimy products of those towns help make Britain the world power that she was a century ago.
Some of the towns have modernised faster than others, but the legacy of our industrial age will take time to replace in many towns, especially in the North, which seems to have been placed at the end of the queue by Whitehall.

...whereas the city of london and large multinationals who don't pay tax....

The EX CHAMPIONS of 95 is where everyone wants to live!

Successive govts have let towns like Burnley down. First under Thatcherism and then under New Labour - both cared more about the City of London than they did about our manufacturing industry.

I would even hazard a guess that our town lost more skilled and semi skilled jobs under New Labour than it did under Thatcher and this is quite a damning indictment when you consider what the town and its people went through in the 1980s.

Just think of all the big manufacturing companies, along with decent paid fulltime jobs, that are no longer here, and many of them left on Blair's watch while sighting an artificially high pound - the govt did nothing.

One thing though. I'd much rather live here than many other towns with similar problems. Beautiful countryside, affordable good areas, not just the poor rundown ones they always show on the TV news. Even our town centre deserves some credit. There's a hell of a lot worst town centres up and down the country with far more shabby and boarded up shop fronts than we have.

I would say Burnley has more going for it than Backburn everytime I go to Blackburn it gets worse, the place is on its arse! And I dont live in Burnley, just an honest opinion

A fair report by Sky. Most of the report was about the national picture anyway. And they were positive about the new aerospace jobs.

They just happened to be in Burnley on a rainy day, which didn't help. Lots and lots of towns in the South and parts of London have closed shops and depressed areas.

At least for the most part Burnley still has a sense of community and nice countryside.

I've lived in Burnley for 26 years, and have seen at first hand, the general demise of what was once (and arguably still is) a proud northern town.

It's not that it's a typical northern town, or that it has it's fair share of poverty..... The reasons behind burnley's problems go back to the seventies....... At a time when there was very little to differentiate between Blackburn and Burnley....... Both towns had plenty of textile industries as well as world renowned conglomerates...

Over the last 40 years, Blackburn has somewhat lost, in the tens of millions
shaved off it's GDP in the manufacturing industry, but increased it's GDP
considerably year on year (excluding the


The result? Blackburn has not only recreated itself, it has, importantly, maintained and increased it's business base, thus keeping the local population in employment, and increasing the population year on year.

Burnley, on the other hand, on losing it's manufacturing base in considerable amounts, and therefore, employment aged folk have continuously moved out of town.......And many made unemployed have, for one reason or other, not found alternative employment, thus not contributing into the local economy..... Hence the upsurge in pound shops, and the lack of more upmarket retailers....

The reason I have used Blackburn as a comparison, is, because forty years
ago, there was very little to differentiate between the two towns.

I'm not convinced by our local politicians either.
What is needed, is a major overhaul of local political administration. By that, i mean that Burnley needs to become a unitary status authority..... Get rid of the two tier Lancashire county council, that only tends to favour Heavy investment in Preston, to the detriment of the likes of Burnley, pendle and hyndburn......

The town looks tired.... In certain parts almost depressing, yet set amidst some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere in Britain....

It's not the townsfolk that have let Burnley down, it's the self serving politicians....

The sky report and journalists should have done some fact finding, before reporting what is, essentially, a shallow, half-truthed sensationalistic piece of rancid journalism....the same sort of behaviour that local, self serving politicians have displayed, time and again, at the cost of the livelihoods of scores and scores of Burnley townsfolk.....

To be honest i stopped watching sky news and BBC news a long time ago, to much of a celebrity chat show than real news, so i didnt see it but i can guess what it was like, while things are based in the South the way they are, all the old Lancashire mill towns will get a bad press.

Well said bikerjohn, it saved me a lot of texting! Also, why has Blackburn come out better than Burnley over the years? Maybe it's because they have had a high profile MP for many years who has fought for the Town, whilst we have had a bloke who couldn't, tuck his shirt in, then a Southern Tory who wouldn't live here or send her kids to a local school?

cathedral citi wrote:
I've lived in Burnley for 26 years, and have seen at first hand, the general demise of what was once (and arguably still is) a proud northern town. It's not that it's a typical northern town, or that it has it's fair share of poverty..... The reasons behind burnley's problems go back to the seventies....... At a time when there was very little to differentiate between Blackburn and Burnley....... Both towns had plenty of textile industries as well as world renowned conglomerates... Over the last 40 years, Blackburn has somewhat lost, in the tens of millions shaved off it's GDP in the manufacturing industry, but increased it's GDP considerably year on year (excluding the The result? Blackburn has not only recreated itself, it has, importantly, maintained and increased it's business base, thus keeping the local population in employment, and increasing the population year on year. Burnley, on the other hand, on losing it's manufacturing base in considerable amounts, and therefore, employment aged folk have continuously moved out of town.......And many made unemployed have, for one reason or other, not found alternative employment, thus not contributing into the local economy..... Hence the upsurge in pound shops, and the lack of more upmarket retailers.... The reason I have used Blackburn as a comparison, is, because forty years ago, there was very little to differentiate between the two towns. I'm not convinced by our local politicians either. What is needed, is a major overhaul of local political administration. By that, i mean that Burnley needs to become a unitary status authority..... Get rid of the two tier Lancashire county council, that only tends to favour Heavy investment in Preston, to the detriment of the likes of Burnley, pendle and hyndburn...... The town looks tired.... In certain parts almost depressing, yet set amidst some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere in Britain.... It's not the townsfolk that have let Burnley down, it's the self serving politicians.... The sky report and journalists should have done some fact finding, before reporting what is, essentially, a shallow, half-truthed sensationalistic piece of rancid journalism....the same sort of behaviour that local, self serving politicians have displayed, time and again, at the cost of the livelihoods of scores and scores of Burnley townsfolk.....

Burnley - 2888 unemployed (5.4% of population)
.
.
blackburn & D - 4476 unemployed (5.1% of population)
.
http://www.lancashir
e.gov.uk/office_of_t
he_chief_executive/l
ancashireprofile/une
mployment/core.asp#c
cbu
.
Does being a rovers fan living in Burnley make you especially bitter?
.
Bar Debenhams what other essential High Street store is in Blackburn but not Burnley?
.
Blackburn is a tier 1 town isn't it? Wasn't that the basis of their objections to the developments in Preston? Delaying Prestons multi million pound development enabled Blackburn to re-new its market!

cathedral citi wrote:
I've lived in Burnley for 26 years, and have seen at first hand, the general demise of what was once (and arguably still is) a proud northern town.

It's not that it's a typical northern town, or that it has it's fair share of poverty..... The reasons behind burnley's problems go back to the seventies....... At a time when there was very little to differentiate between Blackburn and Burnley....... Both towns had plenty of textile industries as well as world renowned conglomerates...

Over the last 40 years, Blackburn has somewhat lost, in the tens of millions
shaved off it's GDP in the manufacturing industry, but increased it's GDP
considerably year on year (excluding the


The result? Blackburn has not only recreated itself, it has, importantly, maintained and increased it's business base, thus keeping the local population in employment, and increasing the population year on year.

Burnley, on the other hand, on losing it's manufacturing base in considerable amounts, and therefore, employment aged folk have continuously moved out of town.......And many made unemployed have, for one reason or other, not found alternative employment, thus not contributing into the local economy..... Hence the upsurge in pound shops, and the lack of more upmarket retailers....

The reason I have used Blackburn as a comparison, is, because forty years
ago, there was very little to differentiate between the two towns.

I'm not convinced by our local politicians either.
What is needed, is a major overhaul of local political administration. By that, i mean that Burnley needs to become a unitary status authority..... Get rid of the two tier Lancashire county council, that only tends to favour Heavy investment in Preston, to the detriment of the likes of Burnley, pendle and hyndburn......

The town looks tired.... In certain parts almost depressing, yet set amidst some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere in Britain....

It's not the townsfolk that have let Burnley down, it's the self serving politicians....

The sky report and journalists should have done some fact finding, before reporting what is, essentially, a shallow, half-truthed sensationalistic piece of rancid journalism....the same sort of behaviour that local, self serving politicians have displayed, time and again, at the cost of the livelihoods of scores and scores of Burnley townsfolk.....

Some good comment here but just to re-iterate, the Sky Journalist spent 45 minutes in our office on Monday interviewing us about all the positive initiatives underway but chose to ignore them all as they obviously did not fit his agenda.

Burnley people and Blackburn people will bicker at and about each other but get some despicable outside self-serving southern-based bigot having a go at one of those places and the sense of cohesion rises and they get together and fight together. Magnificent! People are always stronger when their backs are against the wall.

Dont trust anything coming from Sky. They usually have a hidden agenda I think and the reporters obviously want to make themselves look good for their masters.

midas wrote:

cathedral citi wrote:
I've lived in Burnley for 26 years, and have seen at first hand, the general demise of what was once (and arguably still is) a proud northern town. It's not that it's a typical northern town, or that it has it's fair share of poverty..... The reasons behind burnley's problems go back to the seventies....... At a time when there was very little to differentiate between Blackburn and Burnley....... Both towns had plenty of textile industries as well as world renowned conglomerates... Over the last 40 years, Blackburn has somewhat lost, in the tens of millions shaved off it's GDP in the manufacturing industry, but increased it's GDP considerably year on year (excluding the The result? Blackburn has not only recreated itself, it has, importantly, maintained and increased it's business base, thus keeping the local population in employment, and increasing the population year on year. Burnley, on the other hand, on losing it's manufacturing base in considerable amounts, and therefore, employment aged folk have continuously moved out of town.......And many made unemployed have, for one reason or other, not found alternative employment, thus not contributing into the local economy..... Hence the upsurge in pound shops, and the lack of more upmarket retailers.... The reason I have used Blackburn as a comparison, is, because forty years ago, there was very little to differentiate between the two towns. I'm not convinced by our local politicians either. What is needed, is a major overhaul of local political administration. By that, i mean that Burnley needs to become a unitary status authority..... Get rid of the two tier Lancashire county council, that only tends to favour Heavy investment in Preston, to the detriment of the likes of Burnley, pendle and hyndburn...... The town looks tired.... In certain parts almost depressing, yet set amidst some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere in Britain.... It's not the townsfolk that have let Burnley down, it's the self serving politicians.... The sky report and journalists should have done some fact finding, before reporting what is, essentially, a shallow, half-truthed sensationalistic piece of rancid journalism....the same sort of behaviour that local, self serving politicians have displayed, time and again, at the cost of the livelihoods of scores and scores of Burnley townsfolk.....

Burnley - 2888 unemployed (5.4% of population)
.
.
blackburn & D - 4476 unemployed (5.1% of population)
.
http://www.lancashir

e.gov.uk/office_of_t

he_chief_executive/l

ancashireprofile/une

mployment/core.asp#c

cbu
.
Does being a rovers fan living in Burnley make you especially bitter?
.
Bar Debenhams what other essential High Street store is in Blackburn but not Burnley?
.
Blackburn is a tier 1 town isn't it? Wasn't that the basis of their objections to the developments in Preston? Delaying Prestons multi million pound development enabled Blackburn to re-new its market!

My footballing allegiance has got NOTHING to do with the fact that I care about the place I live in..... You've missed out the fact, that Burnley also has a very high claimant count, irrespective of employability, that claim disability and ESA/ incapacity benefits......

Furthermore, let's be realistic..... Blackburn town centre has managed to recreate itself, much more than Burnley has. This is nothing to do with footballing allegiances..... It's a fact, that the centre of Blackburn looks much more of a vibrant, fresh looking town centre, with a large shopping centre that has the likes of Debenhams, British home stores, bank, primark, to name but a few...... And let's be honest, burnley's lot looks somewhat disjointed and is miles behind blackburn's shopping precinct, lookswise, size-wise and experience wise.....a further £30m is being invested in the cathedral quarter development....

Midas, this is nothing to do with footballing allegiances. I love east Lancashire for it's beauty and it's great folk..... By the way, since when was a law passed, that banished adherents to a particular football team, to only reside in their respective towns?

My argument is a more protracted one, based on facts and observational evidence......so, don't bring football into it..... I choose to live in Burnley for personal reasons, but hail from clitheroe....

I cant see much difference between Burnley, Blackburn or any of our East Lancashire towns.And i would think only working together will encourage investment and growth.

WoW thats woken you Burnley folk up ! Sadly lots of towns and cities are sadly going downhill throughout the country due to more and more govt cuts

What do you expect when all the work in the area have over the years been closed down, moved abroad etc, ie Mullards, Lucas, once the largest employment company in the area, Main gas/Baxi, Padiham Power Station, all the Texile industry, gone, coal mining, all gone, not to mention the NHS with all the give aways to eastern eueopeans, free health care, social security payments, free housing, the list goes on & on, Oh I forgot, the past 3 or 4 years we have been in recession, all these reasons In my opinion which have maybe helped to drag the economy down in the area. Last words " WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF RETAILERS"

What do you expect when all the work in the area have over the years been closed down, moved abroad etc, ie Mullards, Lucas, once the largest employment company in the area, Main gas/Baxi, Padiham Power Station, all the Texile industry, gone, coal mining, all gone, not to mention the NHS with all the give aways to eastern eueopeans, free health care, social security payments, free housing, the list goes on & on, Oh I forgot, the past 3 or 4 years we have been in recession, all these reasons In my opinion which have maybe helped to drag the economy down in the area. Last words " WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF RETAILERS"

Brian Shirtcliffe wrote:
What do you expect when all the work in the area have over the years been closed down, moved abroad etc, ie Mullards, Lucas, once the largest employment company in the area, Main gas/Baxi, Padiham Power Station, all the Texile industry, gone, coal mining, all gone, not to mention the NHS with all the give aways to eastern eueopeans, free health care, social security payments, free housing, the list goes on & on, Oh I forgot, the past 3 or 4 years we have been in recession, all these reasons In my opinion which have maybe helped to drag the economy down in the area. Last words " WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF RETAILERS"

So Napolean was right all along

chadders2000 wrote:
I would say Burnley has more going for it than Backburn everytime I go to Blackburn it gets worse, the place is on its arse! And I dont live in Burnley, just an honest opinion

I live midway and have never been to Burnley shopping for instance just as I wouldnt choose to go to Accrington which is even worse.. It's not got enough to offer, left behind in time. The new shopping development in Blackburn has made a big difference. My friends left Burnley because they felt their children had no future, property was declining in value etc. Generally East Lancs is much the same though. People further south arent having as tough a time.

Really? Is that the best we can come up with for burnley. 10 things to be proud of - no wonder sky said what they did. Retail regeneration is not just moving a few existing shops to new premises. UCLAN is the lowest performing university in the UK, Burnley College doesn't like Muslims and is run by idiots and the town is full of drunks, druggies, prostitutes and chavs. Tod curve, please!!! Burnley was once a great town but no more and clearly people with low aspirations come up with the "10 things to be proud of". The council need to look at its neighbours for inspiration

midas wrote:
Of course they had an agenda, like the report on Shadsworth. People down south don't want to see a "good news" piece on the north, they want to be reassured that the "northern monkeys" are getting it worse than they are. Keep them smug and the world keeps turning!
.
There should be no subsidies for any business in the south east, they should continue to move the civil service and other public sectors out of the south east, local authorities should be encouraged to purchase and use properties in "the north" (when a two bedroom flat in Hackney/Shoreditch can cost over £400,000 its criminal that London LAs have any housing stock!) Businesses that relocate should be given bonus grants etc

I actually watched this dross being transmitted and couldn't believe what i was witnessing; it was the worst hatchet job since, as Midas notes, the nonsense screened about Shadsworth. And for the record, whilst I have worked in Burnley, I am a Blackburn Rovers season ticket holder (yes, really) and live in the Ribble Valley.
.
Put simply, I didn't recognise the town this rubbish traduced, and those responsible for this wilfully inaccurate portrayal ought to remove the beams from their own eyes, before looking for the mote in others'.

chadders2000 wrote:
I would say Burnley has more going for it than Backburn everytime I go to Blackburn it gets worse, the place is on its arse! And I dont live in Burnley, just an honest opinion

I would say Blackburn has more going for it than Burnley everytime I go to Burnley it gets worse, the place is on its arse! I know I have just moved out nearer to Barrowford.

midas wrote:
Of course they had an agenda, like the report on Shadsworth. People down south don't want to see a "good news" piece on the north, they want to be reassured that the "northern monkeys" are getting it worse than they are. Keep them smug and the world keeps turning!
.
There should be no subsidies for any business in the south east, they should continue to move the civil service and other public sectors out of the south east, local authorities should be encouraged to purchase and use properties in "the north" (when a two bedroom flat in Hackney/Shoreditch can cost over £400,000 its criminal that London LAs have any housing stock!) Businesses that relocate should be given bonus grants etc

I actually watched this dross being transmitted and couldn't believe what i was witnessing; it was the worst hatchet job since, as Midas notes, the nonsense screened about Shadsworth. And for the record, whilst I have worked in Burnley, I am a Blackburn Rovers season ticket holder (yes, really) and live in the Ribble Valley.
.
Put simply, I didn't recognise the town this rubbish traduced, and those responsible for this wilfully inaccurate portrayal ought to remove the beams from their own eyes, before looking for the mote in others'.

bikerjohn_uk wrote:
I had to laugh at the "Ten Reasons" - having lived in Burnley all my life it's just the same old tripe being regurgitated time and again -

The Weavers Triangle - and? Yes, it WAS the centre of the towns manufacturing, WAS being the operative word. It's allvery well renovating the buildings, the next thing is to get 100% occupancy.

Bondholders - a scheme to promote the area. I'd never heard of it until today.

The Todmorden Curve - whoopie-do. It wouldn't be so bad cutting journey times to Manchester if trvelling by train wasn't such a traumatic and expensive experience.

UCLAN - turning out more graduates than you can shake a stick at, a small percentage of whom come from the immediate locality, with little chance of getting a job at the end of it. When are we going to stop lying to our youngsters about the so-called "benefits" of tertiary education???

Aerospace - I'll give you that one, but it's hardly new is it? The East Lancashire area has been at the heart of aerospace engineering in the UK since the 1940s.

Burnley FC - the heart of the town? Riding high? They're mid table FFS after a woeful start to the season!

Prince Charles - has a special relationship with the town. Yes, and he talks to geraniums, too...

Retail - what? Where? I wouldn't shop in Burnley if you paid me. That's what the internet's for.

Diversity - since when did diversity and multiculturalism become a benefit to anywhere? Unless you call ghettoisation of whole neighbourhoods a benefit. ANd talking of benefits...

Schools - yes of course things improved. When you're close to or at the bottom, that's all you can do. Especially in a system where failure is not allowed.

Burnley. The place to be...

Like it !

I wonder how many folk who didn't like what Sky said are still subsribed to that tv provider? Vote with your bank cards!

Having lived in Burnley on and off all my life I must agree whole heatedly with the Sky news report and the sooner we accept it and start to make changes to rectify it the better. The town centre is full of pound shops, charity shops and cash converters and although there is some regeneration it has come far too little and far too late. The once great hospital has been systematically broken up and is now a shell of what it used to be. Gordon Birtwistle promised to return the Accident and Emergency and he hasn't, what he has done is take the credit for the new urgent care centre which is basically the same as the one we have now. Drug use, drug abuse and alcohol abuse are rife in certain parts of the town, violent crime and antisocial behaviour are 9% above the national average and with less police that statistic will only rise. You can try to give reasons why the Sky News report is wrong but anyone living in the town and who has done for a while will agree whole heartedly with what Sky News reported.

Try doing a report on skanky accy, it's properly worse than burnley

Main problem is mass immigration. End of. Touchy subject yes, but if you look at things truthfully, globalisation has been the worst thing ever for the western world. And we will forever pay for it.

bfcbez wrote:
Having lived in Burnley on and off all my life I must agree whole heatedly with the Sky news report and the sooner we accept it and start to make changes to rectify it the better. The town centre is full of pound shops, charity shops and cash converters and although there is some regeneration it has come far too little and far too late. The once great hospital has been systematically broken up and is now a shell of what it used to be. Gordon Birtwistle promised to return the Accident and Emergency and he hasn't, what he has done is take the credit for the new urgent care centre which is basically the same as the one we have now. Drug use, drug abuse and alcohol abuse are rife in certain parts of the town, violent crime and antisocial behaviour are 9% above the national average and with less police that statistic will only rise. You can try to give reasons why the Sky News report is wrong but anyone living in the town and who has done for a while will agree whole heartedly with what Sky News reported.

Gordon Birtwistle didn't promise to return the Accident and Emergency to Burnley. That's just another of NuLabour's deceptions.

Don't forget too that it was NuLabour who got rid of the A&E, it would have been a lot easier if Ms Usher had stuck up for the People of Burnley and fought to keep it instead of toadying up to Blair.

DaveBurnley wrote:

bfcbez wrote:
Having lived in Burnley on and off all my life I must agree whole heatedly with the Sky news report and the sooner we accept it and start to make changes to rectify it the better. The town centre is full of pound shops, charity shops and cash converters and although there is some regeneration it has come far too little and far too late. The once great hospital has been systematically broken up and is now a shell of what it used to be. Gordon Birtwistle promised to return the Accident and Emergency and he hasn't, what he has done is take the credit for the new urgent care centre which is basically the same as the one we have now. Drug use, drug abuse and alcohol abuse are rife in certain parts of the town, violent crime and antisocial behaviour are 9% above the national average and with less police that statistic will only rise. You can try to give reasons why the Sky News report is wrong but anyone living in the town and who has done for a while will agree whole heartedly with what Sky News reported.

Gordon Birtwistle didn't promise to return the Accident and Emergency to Burnley. That's just another of NuLabour's deceptions.

Don't forget too that it was NuLabour who got rid of the A&E, it would have been a lot easier if Ms Usher had stuck up for the People of Burnley and fought to keep it instead of toadying up to Blair.

Gordon Birtwistle did promise the return of the Burnley A+E which I think was one of the main reasons he got elected and whoever idea it was to close it is of no importance to my statement that Burnley General is a shell of what it once was.

I love the LET talking about lazy journalism when 80/90% of their main stories are freedom of information requests and they moved the printing out of Burnley into Sheffield to save money .
This story was about right the 10 things are unreal ,Prince Charles visited ??jeez that puts us on the map.
Townley hall etc jeez my Uncle 'Aunt visited from OZ last year and I showed them all there is to see in one day. On the Saturday I took them into town to see the shops etc and then maybe have a drink or something to eat' but we then found out that Burnley FC were playing a game a mile away against no-one really big' so the police had closed all of the pubs etc in the centre for an hour or 2 so cancel that .Burnley the place to be hahahahahahahahhaha