WORKMEN have returned to Blackburn's troubled Church Street to cover cobbles laid less than two years ago.

Two patches of black bitumen have appeared on the £2million cobbled pedestrian oasis - and council bosses today revealed shifting ground underneath the cobbles had made them unsafe.

Blackburn with Darwen Council staff are now on stand-by to cover more of the street with tarmacadam should other sections of cobbles be deemed a risk to the public.

It is not the first time workmen have been sent back to Church Street following its delayed completion last year.

Weeks after work was completed, men were back on site repairing work carried out by Portuguese cobblers who had created dips in the surface, which were filling up with rainwater.

The cobblers were drafted in from abroad because of a shortage of skilled staff in this country.

Ian Richardson, a director for the council's highways consultancy firm Capita, said: "We have had two parts of Church Street patched up by staff because the surface had become unsafe because of ground underneath the cobbles moving.

"It's a temporary measure and we do plan to lift the tarmacadam soon and restore the street to sort out the cobbles.

"It was important to make it safe in the short term."

The shifting ground is the latest problem to hit the project which was meant to turn Church Street from a busy through road which cut the town centre in two into a thriving pedestrian haven.

Bad weather delayed the start of the original scheme, and the five statues commissioned to line the street were nearly 18 months late in arriving after the sculptor slipped a disc in his back.

At the same time, the transformation of the Pavilions buildings in Church Street has also proved problematic.

After plans by Cathedral bosses fell flat, the council took over the scheme, losing their high-class restaurant tenant lined up for the scheme in the process.

They are still waiting to fill the units, with one proposed to be used as a hairdressers.

And last month, French market traders refused to set up stall there again, saying the street wasn't vibrant enough for them.

They pitched up in King William Street instead - angering those around Church Street who said they they had now lost through traffic and events designed to compensate for the loss.