[Acrylic-bob]

So the plans to redesign Broadway have been announced.

For those of you who have been almost wetting yourselves in anticipation of this long awaited event, the results are to be seen on page 18 of this week’s Accrington Observer.
Instead of a thoroughfare to match the needs of the twenty-first century, that will be an asset to the town and attract traders, tourists and shoppers from all over the place, and will encourage the private sector to dig deep into their pockets to help to raise the profile of the town. What we will get is half an acre of brick sets, a couple of benches and some mobile flower beds.
It will do nothing to dispel the “Pound Store/Charity Shop image of Accrington. It will attract no-one and will repel many. It will be an open wasteland in the centre of town that will provide yet another location for our yobbish young to congregate in and creatively trash!

In the summer, ‘Smarmy’ Rix and ‘Barking’ Britcliffe were puffing themselves up and patting themselves, smugly, on the back as they announced that there was to be a RIBA competition to redesign the most important shopping street in the town – what happened – did the funding for the feasibility study mysteriously run out, YET AGAIN?

That RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects), are supposed to have come up with this. I, for one, find patently UNBELIEVABLE!

Michael Moule, Regeneration Manager for Hyndburn First said “ We want to keep it fairly open so we can use the street for a range of events, such as pot fairs.”
I saw the one they held last week. What a marvellous advert for the town that was. Half a dozen stalls selling the most dismal tat imaginable. That will really bring the tourists flocking in. Oh yes, you can hear them talking in the car-parks of the Trafford Centre, can’t you? “ Oh dear this place is so passé! Let’s go to Hyndburn darling, I hear they’re having a Pot Fair.” Yeah, right.

It was only two weeks ago that Britcliffe was telling readers of The Observer that the scheme was going to cost £350,000. Today we discover that it will only cost £250,000.
“Barking” Britcliffe, who is a recognised expert in all matters pertaining to the aesthetics of the built environment, as well as fiscal responsibility, said,” We have looked at what is aesthetically pleasing and affordable. We are not promoting this as something out of this world, it is the kind of surface and street furniture that is being used in town centres these days.”

Excuse me, “these days.”? “THESE DAYS” ?

For crying out loud man! We are not talking about paving the patio here! You can’t just go swanning off to B&Q and order a couple of benches and a few flower pots, thinking that will have to do! “Cheap and cheerful” is not an acceptable solution in town planning. This is part of the redesign of the town centre you are playing about with. People’s livelihoods and businesses depend on you getting it right, after thirty frustrating years of getting it consistently WRONG!
And while we are at it, where is it written that Accrington must be indistinguishable from anywhere else? What happened to ideosyncracy and vernacular? Come to think of it, what happened to plain old fashioned IMAGINATION and fitting the solution to the problem? WELL?

So there you have it! Because HBC tried “thinking outside the box” and found it far too difficult and stressful, and because Smarmy Rix and his pals need all the outside funding to pay for consultancy fees and feasibility studies etc.etc., Accrington is going to get a redesigned Broadway that; A. nobody likes, B. looks like something from a sixties nightmare and C. something that will ensure that the traders of this town will find it even harder to keep their heads above water.



You voted them in. You can vote them out!