REGARDING the millions of pounds of government regeneration funding our region is to receive (LET, August 2), I would like to venture that some of it be spent rehabilitating Blackburn's 'founding feature.'

I refer to the River Blakewater on whose banks the town was 'born and raised.'

The once-crystal-clear water became the lifeblood of the borough, coursing through its natural artery.

This symbiosis prevailed for hundreds of years until, not that long ago, one of our more visionary forebears decided the 'artery' would make rather a handy sewer. The idea caught on and the blighted Blakewater was culverted and despatched 'sub-terrain,' out of sight, etc.

There it remains, damned to bisect it's eponym, shamefully concealed from townsfolk and visitors alike, draining furtively Whitebirk into Witton, embarrassed to be seen in public. Something rotten at the heart of the borough.

It doesn't have to be this way any longer. Gone are the mills and unchecked polluting 'Bradley Hardacres.' With us is the Environmental Agency and its powers to punitively fine or even close down persistent offenders.

Genuine civic pride will be a stranger to Blackburn until Salford Bridge is actually a bridge again and the Cathedral rejoices on the banks of a river its people can see (and smell) without feeling ill.

What more potent symbol of the council's commitment to environmental regeneration could there be than the restored dignity and vitality of the town's raison d'tre?

JOHN ASPIN, Billingeside, Blackburn.