ESTATE agents have failed in their bid to block a tattoo parlour opening in the professional district of Blackburn town centre.

But town hall planners will have the final say on what goes in the window display of the tattoo parlour in a bid to preserve the character of the Sudell Cross area of Blackburn.

The tattoo and body piercing studio was given permission to open on the part of Preston New Road which lies within Blackburn's Northgate Conservation area despite objections from the estate agents and businesses already based in the area.

It was previously an estate agents and the planning application was submitted by Mr D Brownhill.

Members of Blackburn with Darwen's planning and highways committee passed the planning application without comment after being told there were no legitimate planning grounds for refusing it.

However, the council will be able to control what sort of display is put up in the window so that it does not detract from buildings within the conservation area.

A letter to the planning and highways committee from John Hargreaves Butchers, based close to the application site, states: "We feel that this is the sort of establishment that will do no good for the select area that this was and still is.

"It will bring down the tone of the whole area, especially as one of the highest business-rated areas in the town.

"We have already been affected with the development of Barbara Castle Way and the lack of traffic wardens patrolling the area does not help parking for customers of the area, now we have this to contend with.

"If this is allowed are we going to be exposed to the possibility of pictures of women with rings through their nipples and navels, or male torsos with all sorts of grotesque forms of art emablazoned on them, or at worst a shop front with a blackened window."

A letter from Roy Cook estate agents, in Sudell Cross, added: "We're writing to register our opposition to such an application being granted. The area is predominantly professional and the proposed type of business would be inappropriate."

A letter from estate agents Thomas V Shaw, estate agents in Preston New Road, said: "There is a place for a tattoo studios, but not in a conservation area.

"They have a negative frontage which will be unsuited to this area. The area of lower Preston New Road is primarily an office area and should remain as such."

Peter Kuit, assistant director of regeneration at the council, said in his report to the committee: "Although the concerns of businesses are understandable, in land use planning permission the proposal is appropriate within a business and commercial district such as this.

"As a tattoo studio does not fall within any planning class, a new application would be required if the use was to change in the future."

Councillors agreed to a planning condition that the planning department will have to receive a copy of the shop window layout before the tattoo parlour can open. If they deem it to be unacceptable, they can halt work on the parlour.