FOREIGN Secretary Jack Straw today threw his weight behind the Pavilions project -- and hit back at the "grotty mill town" jibe.

Mr Straw said: "Coun Rigby is doing his own town a disservice. He should be talking it up.

"The good thing about the work that is being done and has been done to improve Blackburn is that it has been done on a cross-party basis.

"I hope these comments were just a momentary lapse on Coun Rigby's part. The Pavilions have been the subject of controversy for many years. I know them well as I briefly had an office in them. They are a major part of Blackburn's townscape.

"Now that Church Street has been pedestrianised, there is a case for refurbishing them.

"We have had major improvements in Blackburn. Last year Lancashire Life did a major feature written by an outsider saying how much Blackburn had improved in the last three or four years.

"The major remaining problem is, as the Lancashire Evening Telegraph has highlighted, in the South East corner of the town's shopping centre around Lord Square. I have been working on this and been in contact with the management of Standard Life to try and find out exactly where they stand on this.

"You would not recognise Blackburn from the town of 20 years ago. There has been work on Church Street and Darwen Street, a major redevelopment of the shopping centre, the makeover of King William Street, the transformation of the Boulevard, the new Railway Station and the placing of the new main police office in the Railway Station."