Latest stages of work on £120m town revamp announced

Detailed plans for a £26m investment in the town centre are set to be submitted for planning permission later this year

All 15 of a Lancashire town's car parks are to be upgraded and part of its youth centre is to be knocked down, it has been announced.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has revealed the latest stages of work on the £120m Darwen Town Deal.

It includes the imminent start of work on a programme to improve the car parks, including everything from new surfacing and new road markings to the clearance of vegetation.

But the authority has also revealed that hopes of keeping part of the current Darwen Youth Centre in Knott Street as part of its £3.3m transformation into a state of the art hub for young people have been scrapped.

An artist's impression of how a transformed Darwen Youth Centre will look

The wider site is set to double in size, adding a brand-new first floor a new creative workshop space, a recording and DJ studio, gaming zone, multi-use spaces and upgraded outdoor sports facilities.

Knott Street Car Park closed earlier in the year to allow for survey works to be completed on the youth centre.

This included detailed ground investigations, which required the area to be closed for safety reasons and the car parks at the railway station and in Atlas Road were made free.

As a result of those tests, council bosses have now decided that the existing youth centre will need to be completely demolished despite best efforts to save parts of it.

Detailed plans for the modernisation and improvement of the market hall, library and Darwen Library Theatre as part of a £26m investment in the town centre are set to be submitted for planning permission later this year.

Wayne Wild, chairman of the Darwen Town Deal board, said: “Over the next year, we’re going to see a great deal of progress on the investment for our town centre.

“This is all brilliant news for the town.”