NOT one East Lancashire town centre features in the list of top 150 shopping centres across the country -- nor do they even make the top 10 for the North West. A £13million project to transform Blackburn, which was unveiled this week attempts to change all that. Reporter IAN SINGLETON looks at whether East Lancashire town centres will ever be able to compete with Manchester, The Trafford Centre, Bolton and Preston. . .

FOR East Lancashire's biggest towns to attract the shops of their more prestigious rivals they need to break into the golden top 100.

That is where the so-called quality high street retailers look when deciding where to open, say, a dozen new stores.

Blackburn and Burnley both sit lower than 165th in the table. Bolton, Preston and even Bury make the top 100. Manchester is in the top 10.

East Lancashire is the size of a moderate city with 500,000 people, with the M65 making commuting across the area easy.

The potential would appear to be there to support at least one Preston-style shopping centre.

But many of the area's inhabitants choose to travel that bit further down the M65 to Preston, or on the M60 to the Trafford Centre, or the M6 to Bolton to shop.

In a bid to reverse that trend, Blackburn is using £13million of North West development agency cash to trigger private investment worth up to £70million with the creation of 50 new businesses and 3,000 jobs.

A report setting out the proposal said: "Blackburn town centre is under-performing in retail terms and much of the potential catchment from East Lancashire is bypassing the centre in favour of more distant centres with a wider range of retail and leisure opportunities.

"This flies in the face of sustainability. We need to kick-start the commercial regeneration of Blackburn town centre.

"The Blackburn town centre proposal aims to build one of those 'thriving town centres' with a wide range of employment opportunities in the retail, business and professional services, education and public services and culture, leisure and tourism sectors."

But is that possible with the established alternatives on offer down the motorway?

Lisa Durkin, Burnley's town centre manager, believes that her town and Blackburn will never be able to compete the Trafford Centre, Bolton and Preston.

She added: "I used to work in Manchester at an office in between Armani and DKNY.

"We wouldn't have a chance of getting those to Burnley and neither would Blackburn.

"The general public don't understand the issues of why you cannot have them. For instance, FCUK have 50 sites in the UK.

"Blackburn are 165th and Burnley 170th in the UK for shopping centres, so there is a lot of others FCUK would go to first if they were going to create, say, five more stores.

"FCUK will only look at the top 100 shopping centres.

"There are 450 Woolworths in the country, so they look at the top 500 shopping centres.

"Bury is in the top 100 so any retailer will go there first before they go to Blackburn and Burnley.

"It is in our interests to move up into the top 100.

"If we don't try and create something new we will stand still so the larger towns which are a threat will capitalise and we will slowly slide down the scale.

"We don't want to take over from Preston or Manchester, we are realistic and want to improve for our catchment area.

"We just want to get something better for our shoppers. We want to get more people more often to Burnley and hopefully they will shop less in Preston and Manchester. That's how we are trying to compete."

She said Burnley could not currently attract more retailers because all the premises were full, so the only way to do this was by new developments.

An old Co-op building in Burnley was bought last year with NWDA cash -- and Lisa is trying to market it as an opportunity for a new shopping centre.

But she believes shopper loyalty will always help to sustain both Blackburn and Burnley.

She explained: "Burnley is a sub-regional town, meaning it doesn't just attract shoppers from Burnley, but from Pendle and Rossendale.

"Blackburn is also a sub-regional town, taking in Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley. People think there is a lot of competition between Blackburn and Burnley but there isn't that much as they operate in two distinct catchment areas in which they are the biggest.

"Most of the shops in Blackburn are in Burnley, except for Debenhams.

"What we find is that Burnley's shoppers go to Burnley for most things, but when we do surveys the most common other place they go is Manchester or the Trafford Centre.

"It is difficult for the smaller towns like Accrington where a lot of people may go to Blackburn, but they have to create a niche like Clitheroe, which is an affluent area that has nice shops and boutiques."

Accrington, which does not have a niche like Clitheroe, appears to be struggling. A meeting of the council this week heard that there were 15 empty shops in the town centre.

For that reason, plans for an amusement arcade in two former shop premises were approved to fill the space.

Planning officer Brent Clarkson said: "In those circumstances we find it difficult to sustain refusal because we really ought to be trying to get something in there."

Coun Dave Parkins, of Huncoat ward, said: "Accrington to me is dying on its feet. I don't like to see empty shops. We have no shoe shop in Accrington now."

Could the future for East Lancashire be an out-of-town shopping centre off the M65 to capitalise on the 500,000 people?

Lisa Durkin doesn't think so. She added: "We hope a development like that would be blocked as it would damage the town centres. We have to make the best of what we have got."