[Acrylic-bob]

Isn't that odd. I have lived here almost the whole of my life and yet it is only when I joined accyweb that I learned about Dr. Lovelace's Famous Floating Soap.

But I have to agree with you, Willow, we take a lot of things for granted. And only really notice some of them when it is too late and they are gone forever.

I really think that one of the main reasons for the apparent indifference to the fate of the remaining historical, cultural and natural assets of the borough is ignorance of them. Ask anyone in the town centre on a Saturday afternoon about the windows at Church Kirk and I doubt that you would get more than one positive response in every hundred. And of those positive responses I would wager that few if any could tell you why they are important and why we should make every effort to safeguard them for future generations.

I have noticed that quite a few members on this board question the expenditure of hard earned money on what they see as profligate waste. The phrase, often used in criticism of the council, is 'they should concentrate on the basics', as though clean streets, were the answer to all the boroughs ill's. I am not suggesting that they are wrong, by any means, HBC have questions to answer for their failings in so many areas. What I am saying is that Heritage, Culture and Environment are 'the basics' for any kind of civilised society. We have precious little in terms of internationally important assets, the sort of things that put Accrington and the rest of the borough on the map, as it were. And the assets that we do still have are getting fewer in number with every year that passes.

It will be an uphill struggle to change the opinions of many who are compelled to live in sub-standard housing and who have to exist on benefits or national minimum wages. It will be the devil of a job to convince them of the continuing need to spend many thousands of pounds in preservation and conservation projects just to maintain what we have as it is now. It will be damn near impossible to convince them of the need to expend hundreds of thousands of pounds to create and maintain new assets.

The solution to the problem will not appear overnight. There is no chance of HBC winning the lottery and giving the borough a thorough makeover on the proceeds. Whatever change comes, will come as a result of education and taking responsibility for the welfare of the borough into our own hands. Every act of anti-social behaviour that goes unchallenged sets this process of change back. Every crazy decision that HBC are alllowed to get away with because of public apathy is another building lost or a field built upon. The tools are in our own hands, it is up to us.