TRAFFIC planners in Blackburn are accused of blinkered vision in devising town-centre schemes that are not "friendly" to all users - motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport passengers and operators.

That is the concern of the town's Civic Society.

And, at a special public symposium tomorrow, it hopes to successfully blend the needs and wants of all such interest groups so that it can deliver to the town hall an all-in traffic strategy that meets everyone's requirements.

That is a tall order.

For the conflict between different users is plain even before the think-tank session commences.

We have, for instance, the society's vice-chairman saying the town centre is so pedestrian-unfriendly that people on foot find themselves in a total confrontation with vehicle after vehicle.

And yet its chairman will be speaking to the symposium of the problems faced by car users.

But, certainly, it is encouraging that this initiative is not daunted by the difficulties.

For Blackburn town centre does need sorting out.

The anger over car access to the redeveloped Boulevard area and the dangers to cyclists created by the deliberate narrowing of Church Street are but two instances.

The real problem, of course, is the lack of a complete scheme to divert through-traffic away from the town centre.

The inner-relief road system, on the drawing board since the 1960s, is a cash-starved Cinderella scheme that, 30 years on, is still incomplete.

But, as a result, a civic mind-set seems to have developed to reduce or hinder car traffic that needs to come to the town centre.

This may be a coercive force to steer people on to public transport and to cut congestion and pollution.

But war on the car is not popular, not just because people value the independence of motoring, but also because they find public transport a poor alternative.

It is also a risky policy economically for town centres to drive motorists to other towns and fringe shopping developments.

Yet meeting the needs of all town-centre users should be the goal.

This initiative is one that the council should encourage as well as heed.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.