Blackburn v Darwen spending revealed

8:16pm Thursday 29th November 2007

Comments (11)   Have your say »

By Tom Moseley »

COUNCIL chiefs are spending nearly three times more on Blackburn than on Darwen, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

But Darwen residents have considerably more spent on them per head than their counterparts in Blackburn.

The figures, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, address Darweners' long-held perception that their town is under-funded compared to their neighbour.

However, campaigners say that despite the cash-per-head figure, more still needs to be done to even things up between the towns.

The Lancashire Telegraph's We're Backing Darwen campaign is urging the authorities to do more to help revitalise Darwen For the first time, the figures for Blackburn with Darwen Council's capital spending, which covers major projects but not the day-to-day running of services, has been divided up between Blackburn and Darwen.

Darwen MP Janet Anderson said: "It's a huge difference in the amount of money spent. It may well be that the per capita spend in Darwen is higher, but the fact is that Darwen is a town on its own and the general perception is that more is spent on Blackburn.

"More still needs to be done and it's time we had a fair deal."

The breakdown shows £74.8 million allocated to wards in Blackburn over 2006/2007 and 2007/2008, with £29.2 million spent on projects in Darwen. Just over £20 million could not be divided between areas.

But divided up between the two towns' populations this means £921 for every Darwener compared to £694 per Blackburn resident.

Borough chief executive Graham Burgess said: "The borough has benefited from a huge amount of capital investment in the last two years totalling £128.6 million or £910 for every person living in our borough.

"The capital spend is across the portfolios and includes spending on social services, children's services, leisure facilities and the environ-ment including both town centres.

"It also includes large sums of money for housing market renewal and highways improvements."

Blackburn had four times as much money spent on regeneration than Darwen over the two years.

Major entries in the budget were for the Freckleton Street bridge (£5.6 million) and the planned multi-storey car park on Feilden Street (£1.8 million), whereas just over £1 million was spent on Darwen market square.

But Eileen Guy, vice-chairman of Darwen's Partnership for Regeneration, said there was "a lot still to come" in the town, in the shape of the planned leisure centre and academy.