DESPITE what some Blackburn people will have you believe, Darwen has a lot going for it.

Both of my children went to school there, I was involved with Darwen Vale PTA, and Darwen baths was visited regularly.

It was a place where you could have a proper swim, unlike Blackburn’s Waves, which is really designed for children and parents who want to splash about too.

Now Darwen has a brand new pool, properly shaped for serious swimmers, in a leisure centre to be proud of.

Except that some Darreners insist they will be boycotting the place – because it has windows at the front which allow passers-by to see in.

As well as saying they won’t be swimming there, these super-shy folk (who made their views known on our website) also claim that the aim of encouraging people to become more healthy by providing superb facilities where they can take more exercise will be negated, because men and women who are overweight will shun the place.

Apparently they will stay away out of fear that their flab will attract crowds of jeering onlookers, standing with their noses pressed against the windows on one of Darwen’s main streets. I’ve never heard anything so daft in my life.

Although luxury hotels in far sunnier climes boast infinity pools from which swimmers can gaze out at spectacular scenery, I doubt if the architects of Darwen Leisure Centre put in the glass to give users panoramic views of nearby shops.

Rather their laudable intention must have been to show townsfolk enough of what was going in inside to tempt them in, so they would literally take the plunge.

Although the country is gripped by paedophile-mania the idea that perverts will gather on a busy street to ogle barely clad bodies through glass is ludicrous.

And if any yobs gather and do start causing trouble in such a central location, police have no excuse for not getting rid of them in minutes.

Anyway, such nonsense left veteran swimmer Tommy Duckworth undaunted.

He opened the new pool 76 years after launching the old one as a seven-year-old by diving from the high board and picking up a penny from the bottom using only his teeth.

Tommy, now 84, says he hopes to go swimming there twice a week.

He clearly doesn’t waste time dreaming up ridiculous reasons for not doing things.

Neither does another ‘oldie’, Dymphna Pepper, of Rossendale, who at 79 years young has just done a tandem parachute jump in Australia from 14,000 feet to raise money for Rossendale Hospice.

What marvellous role models.