The original intention was for the technical school to be self-supporting. The Technical Instruction Act of 1889 allowed local authorities to "Supply or aid the supply of Technical Instruction. . . the contribution being limited to one penny in the pound of rateable value." Blackburn town council authorised the maximum payment in March 1890/ and this meant that the town council had a voice in the government of the technical school.

A special committee was established in 1892 to run the school, but from the trenchant criticism published in the Blackburn Times of 1st February 1902, it would seem that the management soon ran into problems:

There is a widespread feeling that the Blackburn Technical School has not yet realised its possibilities. Unfortunately its management does not permit of any very clear understanding being arrived at as to the facts. . . The institution is conducted by a committee who do not sit in public and whose proceedings never come up for discussion. . . Over the Technical Instruction Committee the public have neither oversight nor control. They are at its mercy.

Their only duty is to "foot the bill", and anything like an honest enquiry is resented as something approaching an impertinence. . . This week the annual accounts have been issued and it will be seen from them how serious a charge the institution is upon the resources of the town. No one will object to the charge so long as the town is getting an adequate quid pro quo.

But we fear it is not. . . The school has been erected and maintained at enormous cost to the town. It should, in return, be a valuable asset of the community. No one with any knowledge of the subject will pretend that it has realised the great expectations with which its establishment was hailed. It is time that the situation was frankly faced, the causes of the comparative failure honestly investigated, and a radical attempt made to reorganize the institution on a new basis which would exorcise the existing sluggishness and make it what it should be - the very crown and pride of our educational structure.

These were strong words and seem to reflect a general feeling that the technical school had not turned out quite as expected. In 1903 it was taken over by Blackburn Education Committee and became Blackburn Municipal Technical School. In 1909, there were only 50 day students, but 1,300 evening students at the school. These evening students were mostly apprentices from local firms, who would go to classes until 10pm on three evenings each week and still report for work at six the next morning.