DARWEN residents have been invited to share their opinion on the plans for the Market Square.

Town hall bosses will put plans for the November scheduled demolition before the borough’s planning committee on August 17.

Work on the £1.67million three-zone events space, which will open up views to key Darwen landmarks including the town hall, St Peter’s Church and Darwen Tower, is predicted to start next Spring.

Heart of Darwen, an independent project run by volunteers and supported by the Darwen Town Centre Partnership Board, have have developed a website where residents will be able to view plans for the three-day market.

The results of the survey will be fed back to the Darwen Town Centre Partnership Board and The Council as well as other relevant stakeholders.

The site is run by Liam Dargan who studied at Darwen Academy before going to university in London, graduating last year

He said: “We want to know peoples ideas and opinions regarding the plans, about how people would like to use it, what kind of events they would like to see, what can be improved.

“It’s really important that people use this opportunity to say whether they think the plans are right. From all of this information, we will be designing a considered proposal to the town, from the community saying ‘this is the town we want to see’.”

In July last year, progress on demolition had to be halted after it was discovered that the market hall was in the Darwen Conservation area.

“There hasn’t really been a delay, just with it being a conservation area, there has to be a plan in place for what will replace it before it can be demolished.

“There will be a meeting on Thursday to approve the plans. There have only been two objections to the plan, it’s not a loved building.

“If it gets approved, it will be demolished pretty quickly so we can get it ready for Christmas.”

Visit heartofdarwen.co.uk to complete the survey.