[Tealeaf]

From the viewpoint of someone who has been a semi-exile for the last 30 years there has no doubt been a massive relative decline, and from certain perspectives an absolute decline over the period.
To the extent that this has been due to pretty severe stuctural changes within the local economy is understandable, but to the extent that it has also been due to malpractice, waste & obvious lack of foresight and imagination on the part of local government is unforgivable. We have just seen how sixty thousand quid has just been blown on a flag-waving jam butty party followed up by christening a lump of rusty scrap metal. This illustrates the point perfectly.
There is no doubt that most of the rest of Lancashire has fared far better than NE Lancs so then the question is has Hyndburn done better or worse than Blackburn & Burnley? I would argue worse; certainly, there have been serious attempts in the latter towns to preserve their best potential assets (Burnley is just about to develop it's historic Weavers Triangle area) while Hyndburns response has been to degrade any historic or potential asset, while at the same time chucking money at some short-term temporary fix. Hence we lose the magnificent Old Grammar School & get get one hundred & fifty thousand quids worth of fountain in return.That lasts three weeks...so after three years we get the Cog Wheel. We take a nicely laid out town centre throughfare with flower gardens & benches and after several years of sustained effort we get tarmac jungle, encircled by collapsing flagstones,
surrounded by shops alternatively selling everything for a quid or simply unoccupied.

But then that's Accrington town centre. We used to have one of those in Church....but no more, I'm afraid. Ossy's done OK - they've still got their shops...so's Rishton & Harwood...even Clayton. But Church? No. We've declined worse of the lot.