WITH high streets struggling due to the dire economic climate and the ever-increasing challenge posed by the internet, rare opportunities to promote town centres have to be grasped with enthusiasm and imagination.

Darlington has such an opportunity this year because the 150th anniversary of the town’s Victorian covered market comes along next month.

Here is a wonderful chance to bring visitors to Darlington from across the North-East and North Yorkshire and it must not be wasted. The celebrations must be ambitious, and promoted strongly, to ensure that Darlington gets a timely boost on the weekend of June 7 and 8.

And that weekend of celebration should be the launch-pad for a strategy to invest in the market building, which has seen better days, and make it a jewel in Darlington’s crown: something novel to offer shoppers who might otherwise be drawn to out-oftown retail parks.

We frequently hear the complaint that Darlington has failed to make enough of its heritage, not least its unique place in the history of the railways (see Hear All Sides, opposite).

Hopefully, that is beginning to change but the covered market is another example of a missed opportunity.

If town centres are to survive, they must offer something out of the ordinary: quirky, independent shops, as well as the national chains. They must be lively and entertaining, with something to see. They must be userfriendly, especially when it comes to parking.

The 150th anniversary of the covered market, and the planned weekend of celebrations, is a glorious opportunity to celebrate Darlington’s past, showcase its present, and point the way to the future.

It will be a crying shame if the opportunity is not fully seized.