By Bill Jacobs

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A department store's proposal to leave a town centre for a new state-of-the-art base has suffered a major blow.

Marks & Spencer wanted to relocate its Blackburn branch to Issa brother's Frontier Park retail hub at Whitebirk.

But Hyndburn Council's planning committee has been advised by officers to refuse the application for the new store when it meets next week.

A report said there were better alternative sites for the store.

It notes an objection from Blackburn with Darwen Council which suggests alternative sites for the new M&S store on Carl Fogarty Way and on the location on the former Thwaites Brewery land originally earmarked for a new Morrison' superstore before the supermarket chain pulled out of the move last month.

There are also objections from a nearby resident and Tesco.

In November M&S announced it was planning on vacating its current site in the heart of Blackburn town centre in King William Street, where it has stood since the 1980s.

It revealed it was proposing to move into a purpose-built larger store which would feature a new food hall and wider range of products Frontier Park on the outskirts of the town.

All 120 staff would be offered jobs at the new site which would be double the size of the existing one if the move goes ahead

Now the application by the Issa brothers property arm Monte Blackburn Ltd which owns the out of town retail estate on Frontier Avenue, Rishton, to build the store is due to be debated by councillors on Hyndburn Council's planning committee on Wednesday.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's growth boss councillor Quesir Mahmood: "We were obviously disappointed when M&S said it was leaving Blackburn town centre.

"If planning permission is refused for the Frontier Park site we would be happy to help them find a location in the town."

Monte Blackburn Ltd declined to make immediate comment.

Marks and Spencer has been approached for comment.

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A government grant is to be used to spruce up Blackburn’s King William Street and its surrounding area as part of a bid to ‘revitalise and reimagine’ the town centre.

The £237,000 comes from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) as part of its High Street Accelerator. In a report to colleagues Blackburn with Darwen Council’s growth boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood says: “King William Street, Blackburn, has been selected by the High Street Task Force as one of the ten High Street Accelerators.

“It is a pilot project and an opportunity to trial new ways of working to revitalise the high street and to tackle vacancies. The council submitted a proposal specific to the King William Street which was approved by DHLUC.

“Each of 10 accelerators will receive £237,000 revenue funding and the opportunity to apply for additional capital funding in 2024 for high street environmental and greening projects. The King William Street ‘area’ (which also includes Town Hall Street, New Market Street and Northgate) was selected for a number of reasons.

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“Its historic role as the town’s commercial and civic core, and proximity to the Mall Shopping centre, means the area retains its physical status as the town main ‘high street’, yet it in more recent times it no longer operates as traditional high street or focal point of activity for the town.

“While regeneration initiatives have helped other areas of the town centre over the last 15 years, around King William Street the ongoing challenges are particularly stark. Vacancies have increased and the quality of offer weakened with the loss of independent retail and leisure, closure of banks and major high street retailers like Debenhams and Wilko.

“The only remaining retail anchor is M&S, which is likely to close within two years. This means King William Street currently struggles to entice visitors out of the comfort of the shopping centre, footfall continues to decline and this has a knock-on effect to the vitality of surrounding areas.

“A small programme of cultural projects and meanwhile uses supported by small property grants and discretionary rates incentives have been relatively successful in helping to create temporary interest but this is not a long-term solution and cannot be sustained without also tackling lack of funding to properly maintain the environment, badly-maintained properties, absent landlords, and anti-social behaviour.

“A Blackburn high street was selected rather than a Darwen high street because Darwen was announced recently as one of the 55 towns announced by government to benefit from a Long Term Plan with £20m funding over 10 years in addition to the £25m Town Deal.

“The project will seek to encourage an enhanced cultural and leisure offer on King William Street. The environment will be improved with cleaner and greener streets.

“Where properties are vacant or no longer financially viable for retail uses, the project will seek alternative uses. The streets will be animated with markets, events, street art and music.

“It is important that King William Street can reinvent itself to regain its status as the town’s gold standard high street, a desirable destination in its own right but also a gateway to other areas of the town centre.”

Has the mystery artist Banksy been at work in Blackburn?

Some residents think so after seeing a new piece of street art pop up in the town centre.

The stencilled graffiti certainly fits the style of Banksy – whose real identity remains a mystery – as does the political message behind it.

The new piece of art can be seen in Corporation Street in Blackburn town centre, opposite the old Chippery fish and chip shop, painted on the wall of the ramps to the Mall car park.

It depicts a young girl painting on the wall, writing a quote by Ancient Roman philosopher Cicero.

It reads: “Laws are silent in times of war,” with a $ dollar sign instead of the ‘s’ in ‘silent’ perhaps suggesting money plays a part in the alleged silence.

It is an interpretation of the Latin phrase ‘Inter arma enim silent leges’, which literally translates as "for among arms, the laws are silent".

In modern times, it is usually used to refer to when civil liberties are eroded during wartime, particularly against minority groups.

One resident, Pete Moore, wondered if the art piece was by Banksy.

He said: “On the retaining wall of the Mall car park entrance, a freshly painted mural has appeared.

“The big question is, is it a genuine Bansky? The appended quote from Cicero would suggest that it is but who can tell?”

Unfortunately, upon closer inspection this art piece doesn’t appear to be by Banksy, but instead by another street artist who has had his work featured at Banksy’s Dismaland in Weston-super-Mare, along with at the Tate Modern in London and the Louvre in Paris.

To the right of the mural is a tag, which reads Zedsy, who is another British street artist.

Zedsy has more than 10,000 followers on Instagram, where their portfolio of work can be seen, including a large number of politically motivated pieces can be seen, as well as pieces referencing war and the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.

The artist has yet to post about the piece on social media, while previous public artworks have been created in Hoylake on the Wirral, in Southport, as well as Edinburgh, Paris, Manchester, Istanbul and even Bethlehem.

So while it looks like Banksy has yet to cross Blackburn off their list, another up and coming artist has left their mark on the town.

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has been revealed as the partner in Blackburn's proposed £60 million Skills and Education Campus.

The exciting plans will see a new 'visually impressive' bespoke learning hub for almost 3,000 students built in the town centre.

Until now, proposals for the scheme next to the former Thwaites Brewery site have referred to working with "a leading North-West university and other education and training providers".

Now papers for Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive board reveal the partner in the new campus will be UCLan, and its Blackburn-based subsidiary Training 2000.

More details are also given on the project which is a key component of the authority's Business Innovation District for the town, which it estimates could contribute £1 billion of new economic activity to the borough over the next decade.

The UCLan plans include constructing a modern purpose-built training hub with around 87,000 square feet of space for up to 2,800 students.

The new skills campus, largely financed from government Levelling Up fund grants, is also an important part of the council's Blackburn Town Centre Masterplan, which was rocked last month when Morrisons pulled out of plans to build a new store on the brewery site in favour of upgrading its existing premises in Railway Road.

Plans for the new learning hub are expected to be submitted in June with construction starting in Summer 2025 and students arriving in Autumn 2027, if approved.

A report to Thursday's executive board meeting by council growth boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood says: "The council has been working closely with UCLan and Training 2000 over the past 12 months to develop plans for Phase 1 of the new campus and to establish a new national training centre for Training 2000, a wholly-owned but independently-run national provider of employer-demand training programmes.

"Training 2000 has many national customers, including some of the country’s leading businesses with the likes of BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Royal Mail and Chubb.

"Blackburn has one of the youngest populations in England which makes the area very attractive to both businesses and training providers.

"Moreover, Blackburn has been, for a number of years, one of the most significant catchment areas in the UK for UCLan’s undergraduate population.

"The proposed new building for Training 2000 and at the heart of the Phase 1 masterplan would be a modern purpose-built facility of around 87,000 sq.ft. of high-quality inspirational learning space.

"The investment will relocate, expand, and enhance Training 2000’s facilities which have developed organically over the past 30 years in unassuming industrial estate-style buildings on Furthergate Business Park.

"This new town centre facility will help enable Training 2000 to fulfil its own growth plans by responding to the demands of national employers to deliver high-quality training opportunities which are centrally located and highly accessible for nearly 2,800 industry-based learners by 2030 – nearly a three-fold increase in the number of current annual learners.

"The visually impressive and inspirational campus buildings and nearly two acres of uplifting public realm and greenspace in a new urban park will catalyse the follow-on phases of the new Town Centre Masterplan.

"The campus will significantly boost regular town centre footfall, directly and indirectly supporting new town centre employment across the commercial, leisure and retail sectors.

"It will deliver a visually impressive asset of scale right at the heart of the urban core that will contribute to the renewal and transformation of Blackburn town centre as a culturally vibrant, dynamic, low carbon innovation hub, and a place local people are proud of.

"Our Business Innovation District will also help to cement plans for the adjoining developments including the re-development of the former St John’s Church and Making Rooms, as a new Tech Innovation Quarter.

"The new Blackburn Business Innovation District Phase 1 is a core element of the emerging Blackburn Growth Axis, which links Blackburn with the adjacent Samlesbury Enterprise Zone (the home of BAE Systems) the new National Cyber Security HQ and the nationally renowned AMRC’s innovation centre, creating the opportunity to establish 100,000 jobs in the area, one of the most important economic centres in the North of England."

The executive board meeting is asked to authorise the spending of £750,000 on preparations for the scheme to be spent by Maple Grove Blackburn Ltd, the council's joint development venture with the Eric Wright Group.