[WillowTheWhisp]

I agree that it's sad that we are losing the individual character of towns with small local shops closing down. Jut look at all the empty shops in Accy.

Yes places like Affleck's do well in Manchester because people go there because they know it's there. Accrington could do with a complete shake-up and start attracting people to come here to shop. They used to once. People actually used to travel into Accrington on buses to shop in our market and town centre. Now all we seem to do is drive retailers away by putting up rents and drive shoppers away by creating a poky market where you can't get past anyone who happens to have stopped at a stall. Woe betide someone in a wheelchair trying to get past a young mother with a pram!

I would love to see the centre of the town redeveloped imaginatively, making use of our natural assets. It is still possible to do food shopping on the market without it taking too much time - butchers, fish stall, grocers all there and then bakers not too far away in Broadway or Peel St.

As for interesting shops/stalls - well we've still got Moonstorm in the market and the Glory Hole in Warner St but wouldn't it be great if we attracted more visitors to the town to shop and had more of the unique and quirky kinds of shops. Standish St in Burnley used to have a few interesting shops but last time I went even they weren't as appealing as they used to be.

I know redevelopment takes money but it also needs imagination and the courage to do something more than marble benches and chrome bins on Broadway.