Last time Blackburn’s Easter Fair was held on Brown Street car park, suggestions were put forward over how to reduce costs of staging this event.
One of these suggestions was to build a hydro electric power plant, utilising Blackburn’s River Blakewater, which flows underneath the fairground site. A turbine powered by flow from our subterranean river could produce not only enough electricity to run a fairground, but also make a contribution to Britain’s National Grid. Profits from this could go on to help finance other worthy projects throughout our borough.
The fairground itself could then have other uses. One idea is it being utilised as an exhibition centre and museum, displaying some of the ways Blackburn’s citizens used to be entertained before cinema, radio, TV and the internet were invented. This could also lead to not only guided fairground tours, but also tours of the power station, underneath this complex.
A great deal of thought has gone into environmental impacts of this power station. It would lead to special fish and amphibian channels having to be installed for eels, salmon, frogs and other marine creatures. They would then have a safe passage allowing them to bypass its electricity turbine, which would produce green energy, in this case, hydro electric power.
Perhaps the most ingenious aspect of this project is a joint undertaking between both fairground and power station. A big wheel would be constructed to blend in with the fairground, but would be actually producing auxiliary electricity separate from the power station, but also feeding into its National Grid supply. This would be done by a hamster type wheel being installed on this site, where people can walk or run along its treadmill and produce electricity from their own steam.
A facility such as this could easily capture people’s imagination. Local organisations could form their own teams and take part in walks along the big wheel, raising money for charity and local causes. It could even be used as a form of voluntary punishment for minor criminal activity. Electricity produced from walking the wheel would count as payment towards any fines incurred by convicted offenders.
One good thing about this fairground is it is only being temporary, like the one that sometimes parks up there each Easter. As well as Brown St, the fairground has also parked up on Thwaites’ old brewery site. Each visit to this site by the fairground is always a temporary one. This may be the case with Blackburn’s proposed power generating project, but for just a bit longer. Whereas a power station would be permanent.
