This site uses some technical malarkey to track how many people are visiting the site. Among other things, it shows us which search terms people are using to get here. This month's results are very interesting:

It emerges that Blackburn Mela - cancelled by the Tory/Liberal council - is the third highest search term entered by members of the public.  Arts in the Park, which has also been dumped, is not far behind.

Labour leader Kate Hollern is quoted in the Lancashire Telegraph today in an article which reveals just £90,000 has been set aside for the poorly-attended 'Celebrate Blackburn' events.

When will Tory culture boss Cllr Michael Law-Riding realise that Blackburn residents want their festivals back?

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Darwen Music Live is a popular, well-attended event. Where is Blackburn's equivalent?

The Tory-led council couldn't wait to scrap Arts in the Park and the Mela. Phil Riley blogs on why they're missed - and why Labour would bring them back.

It's festival time of the year - big ones like Glastonbury and Womad and, increasingly, small ones springing up all over the country. A glance at the press suggests that there's hardly a town or village that doesn't see the merits of putting on a weekend of events that will draw the local community together and introduce people to new musical experiences at the same time.

That is hardly a town, apart from Blackburn.

One of the few decisive actions taken by the Tory-led coalition since its arrival on the scene was the scrapping of Arts in the Park and the Mela - two events which were becoming increasingly popular across the town and helping to break down social barriers (something Blackburn desperately needs.) The coalition of small-minded Tories and cynical Liberals and the For Darwen Party convinced themselves that getting rid of these events in Blackburn was a good money-saving idea.

Curiously, they didn't get rid of them in Darwen which still has its free-music festival and a couple of weeks ago we had the slightly galling experience of listening to Councillor Tony Melia speaking enthusiastically about the social benefits of "Darwen Live" - yes, that's the same Councillor Tony Melia who played a leading role in scrapping these similar events in Blackburn.

Cynical behaviour by the likes of Councillor Melia who has wrapped himself in the flag of For Darwen to gain the political power that he couldn't get in the mainstream parties is predictable whilst the Tories, on the other hand, are simply following their basic political instincts - in the 1980s, they were known as the party that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing - and not much has changed. They don't like the notion of free public events and replacing Arts in the Park and the Mela by some half-baked but significantly cheaper non-events was a natural step.

The fact that thousands of people have been deprived of the opportunity to socialise with their townsfolk, widen their musical experiences, get to frequent the town's lovely parks and generally have a good time won't have come into the equation. This, of course, is what a national Tory government would look like - with cuts in public services at the forefront of an attempt to roll back the state and emphasise private and chargeable activities at the expense of public and free ones.

Sooner or later, the Labour Party will regain control of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and, hopefully, there will still be the opportunity of reinstating free musical events that help to develop that much talked about concept of social cohesion.

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Remember the good old times? It wasn't so very long ago!

A line of a famous song, though I can't remember which - but do you remember when thousands of people from across Blackburn and Darwen used to meet in the park during the summer, listened to music, enjoyed the atmosphere and had a really good time?

Families came together, the old and the young celebrated. Friends met up, sometimes the first time in years with picnics, blankets for the ground and waited for the grand finale, a top band, the classical concert and the fireworks.

I sat watching my mother in a wheelchair with a huge smile on her face, my daughters laughing, my 11 month old granddaughter getting really excited waving her flag, my partner singing way too loud and off key, and thousands of people really enjoying themselves. These events put Blackburn on the map, people travelled for miles to have a wonderful concert in a wonderful park and remarkably it was all free.

Along with many others I have very happy memories of those times, everyone you talk to has a story to tell of their favourite event, who was their favourite act and who they met up with. The story always finishes with "do you remember when" Rolf Harris, The Lightning Seeds, The Proclaimers, or Liberty X sang, the list goes on, but everyone has happy memories.

Those memories are fast becoming faint as time passes. When the Coalition stopped the very successful Arts in the Parks and the Mela, Labour quite rightly pointed out it was a budget cutting exercise and a kill joy move by politicians who were out of touch with what the majority of people in the two towns enjoyed. Tory Michael Law Riding who made the decision to cut the events (and who is standing to be Blackburn's MP) claimed that new events held in the Town Centre would get bigger and better and gave a commitment not to cut the budget.

The events became the non events very quickly and were poorly attended. And surprise surprise the budget was nearly slashed in half from £ 250k. By way of comparison, have a look at these photos or this video to see how busy and vibrant Arts in the Park was.

More recently at a Council Meeting, the same Michael Law-Riding announced further cuts of 30% in the events budget. He said "false promises made in an election year are one thing but down right hypocrisy is another and hopefully will be fully rewarded when eventually the ballot box has to be faced". That's one promise not even the Tories and their coalition henchmen can avoid.

Photo credit: The Tim

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