Major work to enhance Blackburn town centre streets underway (From Lancashire Telegraph)

I walked past the 'new seating area' yesterday. What an eyesore! They've replaced flowerbeds with dirty sand-looking crap and a dull grey surround.

I'm sure you can guess how many people I saw sat around these monstrosities. Yep, zero.

As ever, the negative comments. Just how many people do you expect to be sitting outdoors during the second week in January?
However, come the summer it may be just what we are looking for - it's called forward planning. Well done, BwD.

I have sat on these seats during christmas shopping! Why do people moan whenever improvements are being made? Get a life...

King william street has had a makeover after 30 years or so,sadly Blackburn won't be attracting that many visitors,we need more designer shops and book shops in the Mall and other parts of town centre.Mall has much as dozen empty shop units and didn't attact stores like Waterstones,Beaverbr
ooks,Ted Baker,Zara,Internati
onale,Disney Store,Zumo,Gap,Jack& Jones and many others to attract more visitors to town centre.Many people still travel to Preston and Trafford Centre.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and has a catchment population of 500,000 in Lancashire who would come to Blackburn not for good street furnitures and pedestrian friendly shopping area.People want more choices of clothing stores,book stores,food outlets etc etc which Blackburn simply is behind Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

M.DANNY wrote:
King william street has had a makeover after 30 years or so,sadly Blackburn won't be attracting that many visitors,we need more designer shops and book shops in the Mall and other parts of town centre.Mall has much as dozen empty shop units and didn't attact stores like Waterstones,Beaverbr ooks,Ted Baker,Zara,Internati onale,Disney Store,Zumo,Gap,Jack&
amp; Jones and many others to attract more visitors to town centre.Many people still travel to Preston and Trafford Centre.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and has a catchment population of 500,000 in Lancashire who would come to Blackburn not for good street furnitures and pedestrian friendly shopping area.People want more choices of clothing stores,book stores,food outlets etc etc which Blackburn simply is behind Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

Yes, but they are trying. Everyone has to start somewhere!!
Would you install bedding plants in January? Of course the flower beds are empty just now: they would have been even if the old ones were still there. Why put the soil in before the flowers are ready to go in?
No one was sitting down anywhere outside yesterday: it was bucketing down!!

M.DANNY wrote:
King william street has had a makeover after 30 years or so,sadly Blackburn won't be attracting that many visitors,we need more designer shops and book shops in the Mall and other parts of town centre.Mall has much as dozen empty shop units and didn't attact stores like Waterstones,Beaverbr

ooks,Ted Baker,Zara,Internati

onale,Disney Store,Zumo,Gap,Jack&
amp; Jones and many others to attract more visitors to town centre.Many people still travel to Preston and Trafford Centre.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and has a catchment population of 500,000 in Lancashire who would come to Blackburn not for good street furnitures and pedestrian friendly shopping area.People want more choices of clothing stores,book stores,food outlets etc etc which Blackburn simply is behind Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

Its King St and Mincing Lane that is in need of a make over.Its the only part of town that visitors must drive through to park up.The ring road needs finishing before messing about with planters around the town.Which includes a lot of demolition work the old police station the run down flats on the corner of Montigue St/King St and all the rest of the buildings that need demolishing Able Motors Byrom House list goes on.They shut and compensated 'using our tax money' Byrom supplies and put the workforce on the dole and then just left it.And now they are spending more of our money on planters and seating.'Great'. Driving into Blackburn from Preston on the scenic route takes you along Bank Top Whalley banks and what a lot of visitors are doing are seeing Bank Top Coker and Whalley Banks then fcuking off up Montigue on a quick route back to where they came from.The old saying comes to mind 'first impressions count' so unless that corner of the town is improved and the long awaited ring road is finally finished we will always have visitors turning away before parking up to see the wonderfull planters and seating that we have along King William Street, Lord Street, New Market Street, Town Hall Street and Northgate 'great planning'.
What are they going do with Margo's mosque..? what an eyesore that as turned out to be.However i still think that us tax payers will end up paying for the tower to be demolished.Then they could build a pub there and call it
The Swan..haha.

M.DANNY wrote:
King william street has had a makeover after 30 years or so,sadly Blackburn won't be attracting that many visitors,we need more designer shops and book shops in the Mall and other parts of town centre.Mall has much as dozen empty shop units and didn't attact stores like Waterstones,Beaverbr

ooks,Ted Baker,Zara,Internati

onale,Disney Store,Zumo,Gap,Jack&
amp; Jones and many others to attract more visitors to town centre.Many people still travel to Preston and Trafford Centre.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and has a catchment population of 500,000 in Lancashire who would come to Blackburn not for good street furnitures and pedestrian friendly shopping area.People want more choices of clothing stores,book stores,food outlets etc etc which Blackburn simply is behind Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

Its King St and Mincing Lane that is in need of a make over.Its the only part of town that visitors must drive through to park up.The ring road needs finishing before messing about with planters around the town.Which includes a lot of demolition work the old police station the run down flats on the corner of Montigue St/King St and all the rest of the buildings that need demolishing Able Motors Byrom House list goes on.They shut and compensated 'using our tax money' Byrom supplies and put the workforce on the dole and then just left it.And now they are spending more of our money on planters and seating.'Great'. Driving into Blackburn from Preston on the scenic route takes you along Bank Top Whalley banks and what a lot of visitors are doing are seeing Bank Top Coker and Whalley Banks then fcuking off up Montigue on a quick route back to where they came from.The old saying comes to mind 'first impressions count' so unless that corner of the town is improved and the long awaited ring road is finally finished we will always have visitors turning away before parking up to see the wonderfull planters and seating that we have along King William Street, Lord Street, New Market Street, Town Hall Street and Northgate 'great planning'.
What are they going do with Margo's mosque..? what an eyesore that as turned out to be.However i still think that us tax payers will end up paying for the tower to be demolished.Then they could build a pub there and call it
The Swan..haha.

M.DANNY wrote:
King william street has had a makeover after 30 years or so,sadly Blackburn won't be attracting that many visitors,we need more designer shops and book shops in the Mall and other parts of town centre.Mall has much as dozen empty shop units and didn't attact stores like Waterstones,Beaverbr

ooks,Ted Baker,Zara,Internati

onale,Disney Store,Zumo,Gap,Jack&
amp; Jones and many others to attract more visitors to town centre.Many people still travel to Preston and Trafford Centre.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and has a catchment population of 500,000 in Lancashire who would come to Blackburn not for good street furnitures and pedestrian friendly shopping area.People want more choices of clothing stores,book stores,food outlets etc etc which Blackburn simply is behind Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

Its King St and Mincing Lane that is in need of a make over.Its the only part of town that visitors must drive through to park up.The ring road needs finishing before messing about with planters around the town.Which includes a lot of demolition work the old police station the run down flats on the corner of Montigue St/King St and all the rest of the buildings that need demolishing Able Motors Byrom House list goes on.They shut and compensated 'using our tax money' Byrom supplies and put the workforce on the dole and then just left it.And now they are spending more of our money on planters and seating.'Great'. Driving into Blackburn from Preston on the scenic route takes you along Bank Top Whalley banks and what a lot of visitors are doing are seeing Bank Top Coker and Whalley Banks then fcuking off up Montigue on a quick route back to where they came from.The old saying comes to mind 'first impressions count' so unless that corner of the town is improved and the long awaited ring road is finally finished we will always have visitors turning away before parking up to see the wonderfull planters and seating that we have along King William Street, Lord Street, New Market Street, Town Hall Street and Northgate 'great planning'.
What are they going do with Margo's mosque..? what an eyesore that as turned out to be.However i still think that us tax payers will end up paying for the tower to be demolished.Then they could build a pub there and call it
The Swan..haha.

Jarisleif5 wrote:
I walked past the 'new seating area' yesterday. What an eyesore! They've replaced flowerbeds with dirty sand-looking crap and a dull grey surround.

I'm sure you can guess how many people I saw sat around these monstrosities. Yep, zero.

King William St. was in need of updating, just as other towns have had face-lifts; stop moaning. Besides, I think it looks really good and I'm pleased they're updating the surrounding streets, it will make a marked, much-needed improvement.

And for goodness sake Danny, stop copying and pasting your long drivel about designer shops and made-up population figures!

Although I seem to remember a "makeover" in King William Street not so many years ago it seems a ludicrous expenditure when we, as a country are suffering from "Austerity"
Even if the money is from Eurpoe someone should decide priorities for Blackburn not just spend it because it was allocated to this.
The last makeover wan quite attractive but soom became unattractive because of broken paving stones, look outsde many pubs and see what the weight of delivery lorried does to the footpath,
unfinished repirs where the utilities have dug up but not replaced the proper surface, count the number of tar macadam patches ,which are supposed to filled in properly after a time for the surface to settle but are left. The very specoa; cobblestones which no one in Blackburn seems to be asked to replace, look at the Boulevard??? If streets are allowed to degarde and no one actually demands that reparis are properly made tehn we will need this "refurbishment every 6 months.
Stop ll heavy delivery lorrieed from breaking the pedestrian surfaces, and hunt down the lorries that do cuase it and get them to pay do not just disregard it as it is too hard to find out!!!!

Although I seem to remember a "makeover" in King William Street not so many years ago it seems a ludicrous expenditure when we, as a country are suffering from "Austerity"
Even if the money is from Eurpoe someone should decide priorities for Blackburn not just spend it because it was allocated to this.
The last makeover wan quite attractive but soom became unattractive because of broken paving stones, look outsde many pubs and see what the weight of delivery lorried does to the footpath,
unfinished repirs where the utilities have dug up but not replaced the proper surface, count the number of tar macadam patches ,which are supposed to filled in properly after a time for the surface to settle but are left. The very specoa; cobblestones which no one in Blackburn seems to be asked to replace, look at the Boulevard??? If streets are allowed to degarde and no one actually demands that reparis are properly made tehn we will need this "refurbishment every 6 months.
Stop ll heavy delivery lorrieed from breaking the pedestrian surfaces, and hunt down the lorries that do cuase it and get them to pay do not just disregard it as it is too hard to find out!!!!

So you drive towards the town and whilst you are looking for somewhere to park you find that you have just circumnavigated around the very centre and find yourself back on the road you came in on....so what do you do? go to Preston!

OK so your now lucky enough to find a parking space because you know the town and where the car parks are..indeed if they are open at all you will then have the privilege of paying £8 for the day at which point you can admire the street furniture and sand pits, which in no time at all will become great big ash trays.

You will then walk around the shopping precinct being confronted by large gangs of lads walking 5 abreast at which point you will be the one that has to get out of the way before your knocked out of the way and verbally be abused, you can also bet your bottom dollar that if you retaliate then your a rascist and you will be the one getting your collar felt.

After all this you need to sit down on one of the nice new shiney benches and admire the town but unfortunately you can't because all the goths and emo's are having a joint and spraying fanta all over each other....ah well not to worry there are some more benches down the way a little where there is no one sitting, then when you get there you realise why, because that little old lady has been back with her 10 ripped up loafs of bread to feed the pigeons and the seats are full of sh1t.

Welcome to Blackburn...have a nice day!

the new area might look nice now, but wait till the utilities start to dig it up and lump tarmac down in it`s place.

outside the Abbey bank, they laid new paving along come some utility, dig it up leave tarmac!!

the council should make them leave a £10,000 deposit when they want to dig up, and if they don`t leave as it was they don`t get the money back.

I was over in Blackburn a few times, during the festive season.

My partner and I were impressed by the shopping range and facilities on offer. We also noticed the volume of people and the busy atmosphere. The cathedral fireworks display, coupled with the festive atmosphere, and then the Carol service, made it a day out to remember.

I can't believe some of you people are knocking your town in such a manner, when your council is working hard to further enhance your town centre environment.

Believe you me, there are many towns and cities bigger than Blackburn, that do not have the facilities and choices on offer that Blackburn does! I think Blackburn has been very much improved over the past few years, including the environmental aspects.

If you want to experience a drab town centre in it's final, lifeless death throes, then look no further than burnley! Now that's a horror story if ever there was one!

Your ferret stinks wrote:
So you drive towards the town and whilst you are looking for somewhere to park you find that you have just circumnavigated around the very centre and find yourself back on the road you came in on....so what do you do? go to Preston!

OK so your now lucky enough to find a parking space because you know the town and where the car parks are..indeed if they are open at all you will then have the privilege of paying £8 for the day at which point you can admire the street furniture and sand pits, which in no time at all will become great big ash trays.

You will then walk around the shopping precinct being confronted by large gangs of lads walking 5 abreast at which point you will be the one that has to get out of the way before your knocked out of the way and verbally be abused, you can also bet your bottom dollar that if you retaliate then your a rascist and you will be the one getting your collar felt.

After all this you need to sit down on one of the nice new shiney benches and admire the town but unfortunately you can't because all the goths and emo's are having a joint and spraying fanta all over each other....ah well not to worry there are some more benches down the way a little where there is no one sitting, then when you get there you realise why, because that little old lady has been back with her 10 ripped up loafs of bread to feed the pigeons and the seats are full of sh1t.

Welcome to Blackburn...have a nice day!

You forgot to mention that mouldy pizza stuck on the end of the Cathedral..
The smoking drunkards of Railway Road in the bus shelter..
The BMX bikers desecreating the graves in St. Johns churchyard...
The crowds of smokers cluttering the rear of the Mall on Victoria St...
And finally, the large number of people begging for 20p to get to Darwen, before they go to the homeless persons drop-in centre in the former Star & Garter pub..

Jarisleif5 wrote:
I walked past the 'new seating area' yesterday. What an eyesore! They've replaced flowerbeds with dirty sand-looking crap and a dull grey surround. I'm sure you can guess how many people I saw sat around these monstrosities. Yep, zero.

Was raining all day though

And... here's a money saving idea that nobody thought of when designing the flowerbed on King William St...
If we build them lower, we won't need as many bricks, people will be able to sit on the edges and we won't have to spend any money at all on seating.
Simplest things are the most cost effective in the long run.

...and don't tell anyone I told you this, as you are not supposed to know about it...

Wait until you see what they intend to erect outside the Star & Garter, something that is supposed to be a disabled access ramp...

It wouldn't look out of place on a motorway, as a lane defender or outside any Government building, as an anti-tank trap.

You read it here, first.

Good to see new street furniture etc to improve the town's image. Hope BwDBC and residents sort out their litter and dumped rubbish problem which creates such a poor impression for visitors by road and those passing through on trains. A series of special trains will be passing through the town from London to Carlisle in February. I wonder what our southern friends will make of the town as they see our rubbish strewn embankments and back streets.

Money thrown away. Houses / buildings don't make slums only the people in and around them can do that.

Noiticer wrote:
Good to see new street furniture etc to improve the town's image. Hope BwDBC and residents sort out their litter and dumped rubbish problem which creates such a poor impression for visitors by road and those passing through on trains. A series of special trains will be passing through the town from London to Carlisle in February. I wonder what our southern friends will make of the town as they see our rubbish strewn embankments and back streets.

It will probably remind them of home only cleaner!

I can't see it from the M65 that's as close as I get to Blackburn these days as it's just so damned hard to drive into.

Michael@ClitheroeSin
ce58 wrote:
I can't see it from the M65 that's as close as I get to Blackburn these days as it's just so damned hard to drive into.

If you can get Blackburn in your scopes your to near...And its pointless driving into Blackburn 'roads are full of planters'..

sean_brfc wrote:

Jarisleif5 wrote:
I walked past the 'new seating area' yesterday. What an eyesore! They've replaced flowerbeds with dirty sand-looking crap and a dull grey surround.

I'm sure you can guess how many people I saw sat around these monstrosities. Yep, zero.

King William St. was in need of updating, just as other towns have had face-lifts; stop moaning. Besides, I think it looks really good and I'm pleased they're updating the surrounding streets, it will make a marked, much-needed improvement.

And for goodness sake Danny, stop copying and pasting your long drivel about designer shops and made-up population figures!

Blackburn needs more designer stores and more book shops.Blackburn is lagging behind likes of Preston,Bolton and Manchester.Many folks form Blackburn still travel to Preston and Manchester because lack of choice.In retail and leisure industries ,Blackburn is just far behind Preston and Manchester.As for your population figures,Blackburn with Darwen population 140,000 now and could rise to 170,000 as birth rates is rising in Blackburn and EU immigrants coming into uk.The UK population is 63 million now and will rise to 70 million by 2030 check the facts.The world population is set to rise from 7 biilion to 8 billion in 2030.Blackburn with high Asian population and EU immigrants coming into UK could see it rising faster than other Lancashire towns and cities.These are prediction for future population growth as from 1970s Asian population growth from 19,000 to present 40,000 in 2011 this could rise to 60,000 in 2030 plus any EU immigrants could top another 20,000 or more.At least Blackburn might benefit from more housing,retail and leisure industries.

woolywords wrote:

Your ferret stinks wrote:
So you drive towards the town and whilst you are looking for somewhere to park you find that you have just circumnavigated around the very centre and find yourself back on the road you came in on....so what do you do? go to Preston!

OK so your now lucky enough to find a parking space because you know the town and where the car parks are..indeed if they are open at all you will then have the privilege of paying £8 for the day at which point you can admire the street furniture and sand pits, which in no time at all will become great big ash trays.

You will then walk around the shopping precinct being confronted by large gangs of lads walking 5 abreast at which point you will be the one that has to get out of the way before your knocked out of the way and verbally be abused, you can also bet your bottom dollar that if you retaliate then your a rascist and you will be the one getting your collar felt.

After all this you need to sit down on one of the nice new shiney benches and admire the town but unfortunately you can't because all the goths and emo's are having a joint and spraying fanta all over each other....ah well not to worry there are some more benches down the way a little where there is no one sitting, then when you get there you realise why, because that little old lady has been back with her 10 ripped up loafs of bread to feed the pigeons and the seats are full of sh1t.

Welcome to Blackburn...have a nice day!

You forgot to mention that mouldy pizza stuck on the end of the Cathedral..
The smoking drunkards of Railway Road in the bus shelter..
The BMX bikers desecreating the graves in St. Johns churchyard...
The crowds of smokers cluttering the rear of the Mall on Victoria St...
And finally, the large number of people begging for 20p to get to Darwen, before they go to the homeless persons drop-in centre in the former Star & Garter pub..

and the drunks celebrating outside the magistrates court...

ffs can't people just be positive for a change. If you don't have anything constructive to say just keep your mouth shut.

M.Danny are you a retard or something?

We need more people like cathedral citi on this forum, and less like Danny. Be thankful you are not in Burnley, or many of the other similar sized towns in the northwest who are a lot worse of than Blackburn. We have a town centre to be proud of, great facilities and entertainment venues in town.

One of the down points in Blackburn at the moment is the night life, which does need improving a lot! So once the Council have finished the town centre improvements they can move onto improving the night life. Then finally knock down the old police station at the bottom of Montague, knock down Byrom, and Able motors and finish of the link road to the brigde!

mnunited wrote:
ffs can't people just be positive for a change. If you don't have anything constructive to say just keep your mouth shut.

M.Danny are you a retard or something?

We need more people like cathedral citi on this forum, and less like Danny. Be thankful you are not in Burnley, or many of the other similar sized towns in the northwest who are a lot worse of than Blackburn. We have a town centre to be proud of, great facilities and entertainment venues in town.

One of the down points in Blackburn at the moment is the night life, which does need improving a lot! So once the Council have finished the town centre improvements they can move onto improving the night life. Then finally knock down the old police station at the bottom of Montague, knock down Byrom, and Able motors and finish of the link road to the brigde!

I am no retard or something person ,just a gentle person who wish to make comments on this threads.As for the town centre regeneration i always in the past wrote a letter to Lancashire Telegraph regarding the state of our town centre.I wrote about an new extention at Lord Square could be built in the 1990s and my pipe dreams have come true in 2010. We need a four star hotel/conference centre in the town centre,when the markets are demolished a new bus station could be built here.The new Sainsbury superstore could be built on Thwaites .We still could do with more stores which have not been attracted in Blackburn Mall,like Waterstones the book shop, Monsoon,Disney Store,Ted Baker,Jack & Jones,Beaverbrooks and many more.There is still more to do in Blackburn town centre,like the orbital road is still waiting to be completed,the Cathedral projects,the Margo's residential flats needs to be completed.Blackburn is the largest town in East Lancashireand the retail capital of East Lancashire.The town centre could do with more retail and food outlets and nightlife as you mentioned more pubs,retaurants and places for younger generation to have a good time in the town centre. Lets have constructive debate not a cheap jibes.

I know most councils and shopping centres removed litter bins during the IRA bombing campaign but could some of these be replaced ?

Why do people moan about Blackburn town centre? Because it's a characterless dump, that's why. You can't polish a turd, though that won't stop BwD wasting more money on trying...

Blackburn has improved over the last ten years one shopping mall with 15 or so empty shop units ,with four high street stores have left the mall shopping centre last year ,Burtons,Dorothy Perkins,Evans,Currys Digital and could not attract more big high street stores.The margo's flats have come to a standstill,the cathedral projects is still on the drawing boards and the council don't even know what to do about the old markets site when they are demolished, yet whether to build a shopping complex or a bus station. Calcutta have 50 or so shopping malls and 50 or so four and five star hotels and Blackburn has none and is the only large town in UK without a four star hotel.Preston is million times better than Blackburn,that's why Preston got the city status and Blackburn lost out.Why because the loony left council don't like private investment ,Calcutta leftist maxist state government has abandon all the state control economy to open up it's economy to more private investment since 1990s,since then Calcuutta is now has booming private sector economy with more motorways,shopping malls,hotels, modern housing complex,skyscrappers
,modern transport systems that wasn't even dreamt of that Calcutta a city of slums,beggars and rickshaws would one day be city to be proud of.Blackburn is still lot behind Calcutta and Preston.

check out calcutta in photos in skyscrappercity India on google and the rest of India's great cities,Mumbai,Delhi,
Pune,Chennai,Hydraba
d.Modern India will be a superpower in 2025 ?

Well done Blackburn council for revamp of King William Street after 30 years or so.Blackburn problem is lack of designer stores and book shops,the Mall has not attracted more big high street chains, like Waterstones,Ted Baker,Jack & Jones,Monsoon,Zara,D
isney Store,Footlockers and so many more.To attract more people back to Blackburn we need more high street stores and Preston is head and shoulder above Blackburn.Preston has more big name stores that's why Preston is retail capital of Lancashire.Blackburn need more leisure and nightlife in town centre.I have lived in Leeds for a while for work reason ,Leeds is going through regeneration and Leeds is a booming city with being the fourth largest retail centre in UK.If we compare Blackburn with Leeds ,Blackburn regeneration is very small ,the town centre,the Cathedral project,the orbital road,the plan bus station on the old market site,Sainsbury's proposal on Thwaites site,the extention of the shopping mall and cosmetic revamps of King Street,Darwen Street,King William Street,Northgate and Whalley Range.These projects in Leeds would have been completed in one year.Blackburn is a small town and these projects have been a slow pace with over fithteen years and some regeneration will take another ten years to complete.Leeds have five shopping centres ,large markets and many arcades,many luxury residents flats and modern hotels have been built.Blackburn town has no modern hotel and there is no residential flats in town centre.Blackburn needs to speed up it's regeneration projects and need to attract more big name stores and a hotel need to be built in town centre.