Fundraising drive to light up Darwen Tower

7:44pm Tuesday 1st January 2008

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A CAMPAIGN to light up Darwen Tower at night has gathered pace after a leading councillor launched a new fundraising drive.

The cost of lighting up the landmark, which is more than 100 years old, is thought to be between £60,000 and £80,000.

Key figures in Darwen have said the move would help put the town on the map, in line with The Lancashire Telegraph's We're Backing Darwen campaign, which is calling for more investment and for the creation of a town council.

Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen party and a member of Blackburn with Darwen's ruling executive board, has drawn up plans to form a charitable trust to raise money towards the target.

In recent months a petition has been proposed to lobby council chiefs to pay to light up the tower. Darwen Catholic Club president Adrian Taylor, who is organised it, said he planned to hand it out to pubs and shops in the town "in the New Year".

Coun Melia hopes to get money through fundraising events with collections at the annual Darwen Music Live, and said the council could be asked to match any funds raised.

He said: "It's been men-tioned by other people but nobody's every done any-thing about it. It's only right and fitting we do it by public subscription for, that was how it was buil. It would cost £60,000 to £80,000 to get cables up there, but it would be phenomenal if we could do it."

Mr Taylor said it would help give Darwen a fair deal if the council funded the project.

He added: "If it was in Blackburn it would have been lit up by now. The tower is one of the landmarks of Darwen and it would attract people into the town."

Labour member for Sunnyhurst Dave Smith, whose great grandfather helped build the tower between June 1897 and September 1898, has backed Mr Taylor's petition.

In October Coun Alan Cottam, the executive member for regeneration, said there was an issue with how the lighting system would be powered, which he said would be "very costly".