A LONG-established jewellery business is the second family-owned firm in three weeks to announce it is pulling out of Blackburn town centre.

Rachel Carr, owner of Carrs the Jewellers, King William Street, said she was very sad to close the business started by her great grandfather in 1899, but had no choice because of falling trade and high rents.

The closure comes only three weeks after Haworths furniture shop, Darwen Street, said it would close.

Today it was revealed that a firm of consultants, recruited to help regeneration chiefs plan the rejuvenation of the town, is due to report its findings.

And Blackburn with Darwen Council has lined up a series of developments aimed at breathing new life into the area.

Last week, global information company Experian revealed that Burnley had leapfrogged over Blackburn in the battle of the High Streets.

Burnley achieved a score of 145 points to clinch 149th place in the annual survey, up from 190th the previous year. Blackburn slipped 30 places to 151st with 144 points.

Ron O'Keeffe, president of Blackburn Chamber of Trade, said the Chamber had repeatedly warned the council that ludicrously high rents were destroying businesses. Ms Carr, 32, said the business began losing money in the 1990s, partly because of the high rents at its previous council-owned shop on Ainsworth Street.

She said it moved to a cheaper premises but had continued to lose money and was now forced to shut.

Ms Carr said: "Blackburn as a whole has gone downhill, there are empty shops even in prime locations next to Marks and Spencer. It's not the town it used to be."

Ms Carr's great-grandfather Alfred Carr began the business in Leek, Staffordshire, and later moved to Blackburn in the 1920s where he worked in the Limbrick area.

Phil Ainsworth of Ainsworth Jewellers, on Darwen Street and established in Blackburn for more than 130 years, said it was "tremendously sad" to see specialist and independent shops closing.

Councillor Dave Smith, lead member for regeneration, said the idea behind closing Church Street and the revamp was to reverse the closure of long-standing specialist businesses.