IT'S two years since this newspaper highlighted the need for something radical to be done to remove the eyesore of Blackburn's Lord Square.

We pointed out how the shabby, crumbling square was a town centre embarrassment and a shocking letdown sited between a renovated shopping centre and the revamped Church Street.

The problem was that Standard Life, the former owners of the shopping centre, said they were not about to spend any money removing this blot on the townscape.

They said they had already renovated large parts of the shopping centre and the return on rents did not justify a facelift of Lord Square.

Reit Asset Management, who bought the centre in June last year for £100million, took a different view from the start. Yesterday we reported how they have submitted plans for a scheme which should be completed by 2006.

It will effectively remove Lord Square altogether and replace it with new modern shops and a covered mall linking Ainsworth Street with the rest of the shopping centre.

The redevelopment should also effectively transform the frontage of the north side of Church Street which now looks so neglected opposite the revamped Pavilions.

Hopefully key retailers are already in the pipeline - this is a golden opportunity to improve the quality of town centre shopping and win back lost trade.

We've already got enough down market retailing. What the centre needs is to raise the bar a little and provide a place that meets people's practical needs and their aspirations.

After so many long years of neglect we look forward to seeing this imaginative redevelopment take shape at last.