A MAJOR supermarket is in talks to open a store in Blackburn town centre as the town’s multi-million pound re-generation gathers pace.

Sainsbury’s have expressed an interest in the market building in Ainsworth Street, which will be vacated when the town’s new £66million shopping centre is completed.

The council leader said a ‘decent sized’ super-market was on the cards for the prime town-centre site, which will also be the home of Blackburn’s new bus station.

Meanwhile, the £70million masterplan for the area around Blackburn Cathedral, which had been labelled ‘dead in the water’, has received a massive boost after £9million Government funding was secured following an intervention by Blackburn MP Jack Straw.

But bosses have scaled back plans for new housing in the wake of the property market slump and the failure of Blackburn businesswoman Margo Grimshaw’s neighbouring development to be completed.

The market building will become vacant next summer when the market moves into the ground floor of the new Mall shopping centre, and the bus station will relocate once the Cathedral Quarter scheme gets underway.

If Sainsbury’s did open a store it would be in direct competition with nearby Morrison’s, Railway Road, and the anticipated arrival of a supersized Tesco to replace the current building in Hill Street on the outskirts of town.

Blackburn with Darwen council leader Michael Lee confirmed Sainsbury’s had contacted the council, which owns the market site.

He said: “It’s a brilliant town-centre site, so the people attracted to it are likely to be the ones with the big bucks. There are only a certain number of people who could develop it.

“It is still early days, and we’ve got to get the new market building started first.”

Chamber of Trade president David Cottam said: “We have learned to live with supermarkets in the town centre, and it’s inevitable we will get more, given the way people have been talking.

“Nobody is prepared to commit themselves, but the way different people have been talking, it is earmarked for a supermarket.

“It will bring more people into the town centre, which is always what we are after.“ Council bosses had previously indicated a supermarket was unlikely to go on the site, where an underground culvert could hinder redevelopment plans, preferring a ‘mixed use’ combination of shops and offices.

But the decision to move the bus station has made a superstore a more viable possibility.

Coun Alan Cottam, executive member for regeneration, said: “At the time it was looking like mixed use, but the mixed use proposals we had were rubbish.

“Things have moved on.”

Jeweller Phil Ainsworth, of the town centre marketing committee, said: “It’s certainly an interesting proposal. But what we really need in Blackburn town centre are more offices.”

Meanwhile, funding has been secured for phase one of the long-awaited Cathedral Quarter scheme, which includes a hotel, an accommodation building for cathedral staff, and preparatory work for the rest of the £70million project.

A grant of £2million grant from the Homes and Communities Agency has finally been secured and a further windfall of £7million is expected within the next three months.

Canon Andrew Hindley, a key figure in the scheme from the cathedral, said: “There is still a lot to do but this means that we can now go through with some detailed planning. The money will see phase one completed. It is great news for the town and a huge boost for us.”

The accommodation block will be built between the cathedral and the telephone exchange and the hotel could be situated where the disused toilet block is, facing the boulevard.

It was hoped that work would have already started at the site on the project, but now it is expected to get underway before the end of next year.

Mr Straw said he had secured a meeting with Sir Robert Kerslake, the chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, to explain the importance of the project to Blackburn.

He said: “This funding is absolutely crucial to the town. Blackburn's future depends on revitalising the town centre.

"We have got the Mall and the market projects and this development will help the town centre to turn around."

Sainsbury’s did not respond to requests for a comment yesterday.

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