I AM all for changes in the town centre and I can see why we are putting a road through on to Barbara Castle Way.

The area around King George’s Hall has always been in need of a major revamp and it is good to see the work is moving at good pace.

That area of town kind of died a death as soon as the bright spark in highways decided to block the road next to the Panasonic Centre on Northgate.

Things went downhill from then on as there was actually no need for travel down that route unless you were going to drop someone into town.

I am surprised it took planners that long to realise that this one road change had caused so much misery for businesses and shoppers.

Gladly (a few years late) they have come to their senses and realised that opening up the road is necessary.

Even better is linking up the thriving area that is Whalley Range and Victoria Street with the town centre.

Regardless of what anyone might think the town centre needs the Whalley Range shopping area more than ever.

When you have people travelling from across the country to visit fashion and food shops along that stretch why not try to entice them into the shopping centre at the same time?

It makes business sense to try to make the most of attractions whatever they might be.

On the downside we really have look at how poor the short-term parking is in the town centre.

You can’t expect people to want to visit the town centre when you try your utmost to drive them away with poor parking.

We want people to come to town centre but we make it difficult to actually get there.

And finally, there is another stealth charge on the masses taking places right under our noses.

Why are several cash machines suddenly charging us 95 pence for withdrawing your own money? I am used coming across this charge on the promenade in Blackpool but not in Blackburn.

We now have the cash machine on Preston New Road (outside the chippy) and the one outside King George’s Hall (which lets you withdraw fivers) charging punters to use them.

Yes, I admit we can walk to another one nearby. That is exactly what I did before realising ‘they’ had not only taken the cash machine but also the Royal Bank of Scotland.