Thousands of Observer readers have said that ‘urgent action’ is needed to make sure Accrington has a town centre to be proud of in the future.

More than 3,000 readers took part in the Observer survey which found that 97 per cent of people believed the town to be in decline.

Ninety per cent of those who took part also believed that the town had ‘gone down hill’ or was ‘unrecognisable from the thriving town of the past’.

The Observer survey was prompted after a miserable opening to the year for the town, with announcements that Marks and Spencer, Homebase and Morrisons would all be leaving.

However, there are a number of major projects in the pipeline, with a new bus station set to be built on Crawshaw Street and a new Accrington Pals themed town square planned in front of the market hall.

There have also been announcements that Sports Direct would be opening a new store in the town and B&M would be moving into the former Homebase store.

The majority of readers who responded to our survey said that the worst thing about the town was a ‘lack of good shops’.

Stat graphics for Accrington Observer town centre report

Responding to the results, council leader Miles Parkinson said that the town still had a lot to offer.

He said: “I think what we are seeing is a change in what the high street is, this will not be something that people have seen in past decades.

“People see the big name brands leaving the high street. That does not mean to say that other retailers are not coming to the town centre, but visually people are seeing a difference.”

The Accrington Town Centre Masterplan adopted by Hyndburn council in 2008 put forward a plan to create a town centre with a ‘broad and sustainable economic base’ which was a ‘desirable place to visit’ and which could be ‘the focus of community activity’.

However Coun Parkinson said that the recession had a major impact on many of the goals in the 2008 masterplan. But he added that after a difficult seven years the town was now ‘getting back on track’.

He said: “In 2008 we are all aware of what happened, the financial crisis had a huge impact on manufacturing and retail but we are now seeing the upturn, manufacturing is expanding, and we are getting interesting investment.

"We are getting back to the Masterplan now after a difficult five year period of government funding cuts, retailers closing and people having less spending power."

“We have got many projects ongoing which are bringing in many millions of pounds.”

Conservative group leader Peter Britcliffe said that he agreed with the results of the survey and said that the council had been ‘complacent’ in recent years.

He said: “I agree with the readers entirely, the decline is something I have been pointing out for some time.

"We need to invest and we need to create the environment to say that Accrington is on the way up, not on the way down.

"I think this council has been far too complacent in the past about the town centre and I think M&S leaving gave a huge shock.

"I do feel the council are working to address the problems now, but they have to do a lot to catch up."

The Observer is doing a four page special report on the decline and rebirth of Accrington town centre. In recent weeks a number of stores have announced they will be pulling out of the town, leading many to say that the centre is dead. However this year there is set to be millions of pounds worth of investment in new transport links and a new town square, transforming Accrington into a well connected cultural hub. Photo by Gary Louth, 03/02/2015

Hyndburn MP Graham Jones has said that Accrington now finds itself ‘at the end of years of poor decisions’.

He said: "Readers who have took part in the survey are right. I have argued for years that a lot of decisions, such as the demolition of the concrete market, have been taken and have had an adverse impact.

"The council has pandered to high end retailers and that policy has failed, we now need to focus on what Accrington does well. There’s no magic button, its going to take a long time to resolve."

Click here to read what others have been saying about the town centre.