TODAY Tory leader Councillor Colin Rigby fires his biggest broadside yet at Blackburn with Darwen's ruling Labour group. His comments follow the statement he made last week in reaction to the new Policy Council.

The ferocity of his attack may surprise some, particularly as his party and the Lib Dems have hardly distinguished themselves in recent years as credible opposition forces. Indeed, to plagiarise the famous remark made by Dennis Healey, their attacks hitherto have had all the hallmarks of being mauled by dead sheep.

Nevertheless Councillor Rigby's onslaught, tempered with one or two positive acknowledgements, is welcome - if only because it may ignite a long-overdue and vigorous debate about the future of this borough.

The council will, no doubt, feel mightily aggrieved. After all it is the 'joint council of the year' and has scored well in performance indicators. It has also recorded some significant achievements since going unitary -- the Capita coup and Church Street being perhaps the most eye-catching.

And the council would also point to the progress it has made on the education front -- although there is still much to achieve here.

But the main reason this council will be upset is because it has a total aversion to any form of criticism.

That is why is has expanded its PR capability -- and created a spin machine which even Tony Blair might envy. That is why we have to read the paranoid and risible nonsense of the chief executive's Fact and Fiction column in the council's publication, The Shuttle.

For a council supposed to be doing so well it demonstrates a fundamental lack of confidence -- and what comes across to the people of Blackburn and Darwen all too often is a council that is just a little too pleased with itself.

There is nothing wrong with shouting about achievement -- our Pride of East Lancashire campaign aimed to do just that -- but it has to go hand-in-hand with a lot of honesty about what is NOT being achieved.

Councillor Rigby is right to say that Blackburn with Darwen has a very long way to go. We need better housing, a far more appealing shopping centre (although progress is being made here), more job creation (despite the welcome Capita injection). And we are crying out for more leisure and other amenities in what is still a very deprived area.

Mountains are still to be climbed. The early successes of this council are just that -- early successes.

The council has just made a BEGINNING and needs to acknowledge that more often. Bill Taylor calls for ambition -- good. He also calls for patience -- not so good.

We want progress and we want it as quickly as possible. One of the catalysts for dynamic change IS criticism. That's why those countries where criticism is stifled never prosper and why vibrant democracies do.

If the Policy Council is about encouraging debate, then excellent. For too long the leaders of this district have branded any critic -- no matter how measured and selective -- as disloyal to the local cause.

That is a load of old fashioned bunkum. Change comes from healthy and vigorous debate -- and, yes, criticism.

This newspaper has been one of the few critical voices in recent years, although we have never been knee-jerk when firing our missiles and have repeatedly acknowledged the council's achievements in full.

That kind of constructive criticism -- and passion -- is what Blackburn with Darwen desperately needs as it searches for the kind of dynamism required to truly transform this district.