A FORMER Darwen school pupil has won a prestigious award for his work creating a website which explored the future of Darwen’s three-day market.

Since the building was threatened with closure and demolition in February, ex-Darwen Aldridge Community Academy student Liam Dargan has been assisting the Darwen Town Centre Partnership Board in leading the consultation over what could go in its place.

Part of the consultation was Mr Dargan’s creation of the Heart of Darwen website, a place where residents could post their opinions on the town centre attraction, and now his work has been recognised with a gold award at The Creative Conscience Awards in London.

The 21-year-old, who attends Kingston University, said he was ecstatic to receive the award.

He said: “The project has only ever been about bringing people together to generate ideas about how to improve the market in our little town of Darwen, but I entered into the awards after seeing it was for socially valuable projects.

“I never thought I would win an award though, so to receive gold was a massive bonus.

“I’m extremely proud to have created a project that isn’t only appreciated in Darwen, but also from people in the design community across the country too.”

It was decided by Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive board last month that the market would be knocked down despite an attempt by a select group of councillors to force the board to reconsider.

Creative Conscience is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to improve communities through the promotion of “socially valuable, human-centred design”.

Before developing the Heart of Darwen website, Mr Dargan was already doing a project for university on the three-day market when he noticed how empty it was.

The graphic design and photography student filmed, photographed and surveyed people in and around the market and also visited DACA to discuss it with students.

He then made himself known to the town centre partnership board by presenting his findings at a meeting.

Cllr John Roberts, chair of the Darwen Town Centre Partnership Board, said he was a huge fan of Mr Dargan’s ideas and was proud of his achievement.

He said: “I’m really over the moon that his work has been recognised in this way. As a Darwen lad He was able to help the Partnership Board think outside the box to develop and conceptualise where we needed to be.”