WITHOUT local councils our daily lives would certainly be a nightmare.

It’s difficult to imagine an existence where we had to make our own individual arrangements, instead of being able to use services like education, refuse collection, social services, street maintenance and cleaning.

What would our towns be like too if there were no planning regulations and you could throw up whatever buildings you wished without hindrance and the only way objectors could make their feelings felt was by physical force?

But, all that aside, there are other depressing qualities that define councils and all the quangos that are part of our everyday existence. One is the fact that such bodies so often seem incapable of acting imaginatively and spontaneously to solve problems.

It has to be something to do with not being driven by the need to make a profit and compete in the marketplace, or die.

I’m not saying that there aren’t councils somewhere that have some get-up-and-go. Just that around here it looks to have got-up-and-gone some time ago!

Only serious threats of legal action, or a public kicking, seem to speed up the plodding process of reports, committee meetings, and other “consultations” which characterise so much local authority business.

Let’s look at the simple example of Blackburn’s Corporation Park – a lovely green area within reasonable walking distance of the town centre. After decades of neglect by all but a dedicated few the council suddenly woke up to the potential of the place a few years ago and spent £3m making it a real showpiece.

The beautiful, renovated Victorian conservatory became a splendid jewel in the crown of this lovely open space.

Sadly, however, it didn’t take long before the yobs started getting drunk, dealing drugs, smashing windows and committing vandalism and other crimes there. That, not surprisingly, deterred the very type of visitors the £3m was aimed at attracting back to the place. Then an elderly lady was mugged in broad daylight and police promised extra patrols, backed up by CCTV, to try to reassure law-abiding folk that Corporation Park could be enjoyed safely. And that’s the key.

If enough ordinary people use the park, the lawless elements will disappear. And the 100 bowlers who use the park’s greens are just the sort of folk who need to be encouraged to enjoy themselves there.

Their very presence cements the park’s position as a community facility to be enjoyed by all.

That’s why it’s an absolute scandal that they have been left without any water supply to the bowlers’ toilets since March. Bowlers have been bringing their own water in flasks to flush the urinal, and the ladies are having to use the gents while the men guard the door.

The council is responsible for maintaining the water supply which was switched off by United Utilities because of a leak in the pipeworks.

We are told the council is “working hard to find the simplest and most cost-effective way of replacing a supply to the bowling area”. What then have they been doing for the past five months?

It’s a miracle the bowlers haven’t abandoned the park and the council’s (and taxpayers’) £3m investment to the vandals.

And it’s really depressing that the town hall hasn’t shown a fraction of the initiative of the bowlers who bring their own flasks, to sort this simple problem efficiently.