WHY is Blackburn, as a town, spending huge sums of money objecting to Preston’s new Tithebarn shopping centre?

What we should be doing is spending that money here in Blackburn.

I believe that a large proportion of council workers are to be made redundant — that’s a posh word for getting the sack — with street cleaners and the cleansing department to be the worst hit, so any spare money should be used to keep jobs, not ‘tilting at windmills’.

Instead of spending money trying to stop other towns from bettering themselves, we should be concentrating all our effort, brains and energy on improving Blackburn.

If we think we can’t compete with neighbouring towns, then we should change our tactics and consider how best we can make our town an attraction, a place folk will want to visit.

We should have a big, hard rethink on the individual shops and make a huge effort to ensure Blackburn is a worthwhile place to shop.

There are lots of specialist traders from all over who would jump at the chance to open a shop if rates were reasonable and car parking easy.

Adjacent there should be teashops, weekly outdoor markets and street entertainments, so we could provide a unique shopping experience that is completely different to that of other towns and a tourist attraction.

We could put huge signs like entrance portals at Victoria Street and at the other end of Audley Range.

At Bastwell, we could have another attraction, an Asian Quarter, just like the crowd-pulling Chinatowns in Manchester, London and other big cities.

For this is the place where they sell gorgeous fabrics, dresses and sweets and have curry houses and different goods.

It’s also where they have great dress-makers.

At the moment we are a town in change, in a state of flux, so we must be positive and build on the assets we have — and then we must kick-start a revival of the town’s now non-existent night life.

Maybe we could begin with the old Cavendish Club, which is easily accessible by car. You could have separate cafes, kiosks selling foods, eaten in a centre space, with some form of continual entertainment.

Perhaps it could be somewhere to showcase local musicians, singers, groups and table magicians.

The format could be ‘chameleon’ — changing throughout the day and continuing as an early evening venue, giving Blackburn people of all ages somewhere decent and friendly to go to meet, greet and eat.

I’ve been doing some sorting out and got together rather a large amount of stuff, so I rang the girl I was giving it to, so she could come and collect it.

Describing the address I said ‘there’s a big flag pole with a Union Jack at the gate’.

‘Oh heavens’ she said. ‘My car’s only small, so I don’t think I will be able to fit that in, but thanks very much all the same’.

Till next week.