A local shopkeeper has contacted Blackburn Life about the “shocking state” of areas of Blackburn Town Centre, including a shoppers’ pay and display car park, dead plant displays and filthy entrances into the town.
The car park highlighted was the Barton Street car park, which costs £1.60 for an hour of parking and is also located right in the middle of the new Cultural Quarter development.
The car park is littered with discarded take-away packages, restaurant refuse and nitrous oxide canisters. The alley, which is the main access route from the car park to the shopping areas, Higher Cockcroft, was also described as “filthy” with broken glass, rubbish and broken street barriers that have not been repaired for years.
Further into the town centre, flower displays by the Blackburn Business Improvement District (BID) appear abandoned, full of weeds and the actual bins are covered in dirt, even though they proclaim the BID is making the town “greener and cleaner”. The abandoned displays have been also been in this state for months, claims the businessman.
The business owner told Blackburn Life: “I find it difficult to believe that these areas are in such a state, when council staff and the BID must walk past these areas every day. The car park, BID flower displays & bins have been like this for months. They must walk around with their eyes closed or simply do not care. It is hard enough to keep a small business going in the town centre at the moment without shoppers being greeted by this when they arrive and are also being charged to park in these areas.”
