[Ken Moss]

I've come across wrong, I don't mean that everything is cheaper it's just that certain things cost a lot less in Accrington itself and are of much better quality. The fresh fruit and veg stalls for instance always leave me wondering whether I've paid enough.

There seems to be a growing demand for local businesses, there certainly is in Rishton and we have seen four new ones spring up in the past few months which all seem to be doing very well. Great Harwood Farmers Market is also growing and growing, it's very nice to see that shopping ethic being bred back into society.

Yes, there are things which could be improved and shops which everyone would like to see but we're crawling out of a recession and it is difficult to attract bigger names when they can't see the footfall. Mind you, if we attract bigger names then the Council is accused of not supporting smaller businesses so we lose both ends upwards to be frank. Look what happened when Tesco opened.

It's all a question of scale and trying to get away from the attitude of 'look what they've got' instead of 'look what we've got' but it's endemic. People in Accrington want to have a setup more like Blackburn, Blackburn want to be more like the Trafford Centre and the Trafford Centre want to be better than anyone else in Europe.

Whatever people have they always want something else.