THOUGH the objections by green campaigners to plans to build massive developments on Blackburn's outskirts - ones promising thousands of jobs - are not without some validity, they are exaggerating the downside.

For, in addition to doubting their employment potential, they envisage East Lancashire's shopping centres being turned into ghost towns as a result.

And they claim out-of-town schemes are unfair on people without cars.

There is no doubt that the two rival schemes on the drawing board - one for a £20million leisure complex at Greenbank; the other for an even bigger £70million business and leisure park at nearby Whitebirk - will have an impact.

But even if both are approved the effect for East Lancashire's economy and most people will be a positive one.

It is plain that High Streets and inner-urban shopping centres have faced stiff competition from the rise of the one-stop retail complexes aimed at the car-owning customer. But East Lancashire has weathered that storm quite well through shrewd reaction to it.

Take Blackburn, whose council in the 1980s resisted all planning bids by out-of-town developers in order to protect its town centre from such competition.

Undermined by consent granted by neighbouring Hyndburn for development at Whitebirk it responded by granting approval for retail developments within the borough, serving both car-users and non-car owners, and in the town centre itself.

Furthermore, it has successfully reversed the flight of householders from inner-urban areas by mixing new homes in with leisure facilities and commercial ventures close to the heart of the town.

And now, though belatedly, the central shopping precinct has been re-vamped.

The upshot has been both the town-centre and out-of-town developments complementing each other rather than competing with each other. And, similarly, with supermarket facilities close to the town centre and its own still-new shopping precinct, Accrington has successfully combated the out-of-town threat.

Additionally, these new bids have town-centre protection elements built into them in the form of pledges for a new cinema in Accrington.

The Greenbank scheme in Blackburn envisages a rail link for non-car users.

Environmental campaigners also seem to overlook how much traffic the out-of-town projects keep out of town centres.

And in the age of the taxi boom and bus wars, it is far from true that people without cars are denied full use of the fringe developments.

It is, however, as the councillors voting on these projects must consider, a question of striking the right balance.

The promise of hundreds, if not thousands of extra jobs must be a major factor in determining the outcome - as must that of what the people of East Lancashire want.

So far that seems to be both the out-of-town developments and active town centres.

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