THE growing furore over the plans for Darlington's town centre is welcome. It's about time there was a decent debate about the central area which, in many respects, is a mess.

Opposition to the ideas proposed by the borough council has focussed on the Victorian railings and steps on High Row but the scheme has much greater scope than that.

The pedestrianisation which lies at the scheme's heart has to be a positive. The present partial exclusion of vehicles simply doesn't work and the council decision to put the pedestrian first is a logical move. So too is the idea of a one-way bus loop which should make the town centre safer. At present, crossing Prebend Row is an absolute lottery with buses seemingly coming from all directions.

The proposal to remove the High Row steps also has its merits, particularly for those in wheelchairs. The designers of the scheme clearly want to draw parts of the town centre together which are presently separated by older features.

Whether the steps and the railings - Victorian maybe but singularly unprepossessing - are really worth fighting for is debatable but nevertheless that debate has to be a good thing.

Although the council cabinet waved the broad thrust of the design through this week there is still plenty of opportunity to influence the final outcome as the proposal goes through the planning process.

A welcome by-product of this issue may be more effective opposition within the council. The previously-supine Conservative group has taken up the cause with some vigour which has to be best way of preventing complacency among the Labour leadership.

There was some evidence of that this week with the Labour leader, Coun John Williams, suggesting that 340 people filling in a questionnaire, with a majority supporting the scheme, was a valid expression of public opinion. The council needs to justify its ideas with more conviction.