A NEW range of services will be launched next month to save money for East Lancashire firms. East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce will unveil the products and services at its 'Business Day' on March 10 at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-le-Moors. The Chamber
BALLOONING businessman Richard Branson will beam live to audiences in the North West to dispense entrepreneurial advice. The Virgin boss will speak live by satellite link on Tuesday, March 31, arranged by Innovation in the North West and the North West
PUZZLED Burnley councillors gave the go-ahead for Cajun dances to carry on at Padiham Town Hall - and then admitted they didn't know what they were! Members of the recreation and leisure committee approved the regular events after receiving a petition
KIND-HEARTED Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers rallied round a war veteran who was living in a cold flat in Blackburn with no furniture and without a kettle. George Butterworth, 70, was sleeping on bare floorboards and could not get any assistance
A PROJECT which recruited residents to help improve two Burnley estates after a series of riots has received national acclaim. The partnership approach adopted in the town after disturbances in 1992 invited local people to work on planning crime prevention
IF any couple should know the secret of a long and happy marriage, it's John and Elizabeth Stott. But after 70 years together, the couple believe modern married couples have little chance of following in their footsteps because divorce is now too easy
A SCHOOLBOY hurled from a motorbike in a head-on collision has said his crash helmet could have saved his life. Lucky-to-be-alive Daniel Ridgeway of Park Avenue in Clitheroe, was one of four teenagers involved in the collision in the dark on a dirt track
IN 1995 I had a slight accident which re-opened an old healed ulcer on my leg. I had to start treatment at home with the district nurses led by Sister Garrity and her team, who have been more than wonderful. And after 300-plus visits, my leg is as new
THE old 50p coins have been called in now, but the new thinner 50p is useless in meters. As a result, students at Bispham Catering College who, like my grandson, rent flatlets in Blackpool North are starving. They have no gas, no cooker, no fire. The
BITING criticism of Pendle Council's bid to set up a £5 million dream village for the elderly in a disused hospital has come from the Housing Corporation. The project to create 100 homes for the elderly was shattered by the Government-backed refusal to
MUCH as a minority of people dislike it, the private car is a necessary evil. Anyone who has real concern about the environment would be ploughing money into finding an alternative to the internal combustion engine, not wasting it on trying to raise the
THERE is no evidence that British justice is corrupted by Freemasonry. But the very suspicion that it could be - fuelled by the Brotherhood's jealous keeping of its secrets - upholds Home Secretary Jack Straw's move to make Masons working in the criminal
EVERY year more people are diagnosed as having cancer - it has now become the single biggest cause of death in Britain - and need the support of Macmillan Nurses. This year, Macmillan Cancer Relief and the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust
Mark Templeton Surfs the Net ROMAN Catholic priest father Jim McCartney is a well-known figure with drug addicts, prostitutes and the homeless. The campaigning Blackburn clergyman's work for the disadvantaged is also known across the UK thanks to his
THE boss of a village post office has been suspended after an audit of the accounts. Sub postmistress Ruth Bamber is to be replaced while an internal inquiry is conducted. Police have not been called in. Lower Darwen Post Office, in Fore Street, was closed
RESIDENTS on a Blackburn housing estate say they are winning their battle against crime and bad behaviour after fighting back against troublemakers. Now they want to reward the young people of the Longton Estate by organising social and sporting events
The John Blunt column IMAGINE it - there's a local full of people who all want to smoke; many are probably there because a pub is one of the few public places left today that doesn't have anti-smoking rules. Yet because there is a new barmaid with a fad
TWENTY East Lancashire firms have signed up to an initiative to cut industrial waste. The ELiminate Club, set up by Groundwork, is designed to persuade small and medium-sized businesses that environmental awareness can bring economic benefits. Each firm
THE RATE of business failures in the North West at the end of last year has continued into January. New figures published by accountants Deloitte and Touche show there were 13 receivership and administration appointments last month, the same as in December
A RECORD number of companies are set to take part in this year's Farnborough International Air Show under the banner of the Consortium of Lancashire Aerospace. The Consortium has already attracted 25 companies to share its stand. A planning meeting for
A ROSSENDALE footwear firm is set to rival some of the biggest names in sportswear by relaunching a brand which was hailed as "the football boot of the 1970s." Rawtenstall-based D Jacobson and Sons Limited is poised to relaunch Gola boots in time for
AUDITORS have praised Hyndburn Council for keeping a tight hand on the public purse strings. They said the council achieved essential savings of £800,000 in a "professional manner" through restructuring and job losses. The management and financial status
A VISIONARY who developed Britain's first computerised classroom is preparing to outline his image of life in the new millennium. John Abbott, director of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, will be one of the speakers at a conference dubbed the "forum
COUNCIL tax bills in Hyndburn look set to rise by between 7.5 and 8 per cent. Forecasts are that people living in band D properties could be forking out an extra £60 with the charge going up from £806 to £868. But Hyndburn looks set to fare better than
TEXTILE firm Platt Saco Lowell went into administration, prompting fears for the firm's 268 jobs. The Accrington based firm had recorded a loss of £500,000 over the previous year. The announcement followed the loss of 140 jobs at Oswaldtwistle's Daisy
A COUPLE have won their legal battle to adopt a smuggled Romanian baby given to them by convicted charity worker John Boast. The husband and wife, who have been looking after the girl since she was handed to them at a Watford motorway service station
A MAYOR fears an annual charity fund-raiser could suffer after councillors cancelled a booking in the wake of a town hall row. A group of councillors have pulled out of the ball organised to raise cash for children's charities in Blackburn and Darwen.
HELP the Aged are begging for donations to assist hungry and cold pensioners who cannot afford VAT on fuel. Pensioners pay the same rate of tax as millionaires without regard to their ability to pay. Have we who fought in the last war for sovereignty
Lancashire Hawks 4 Paisley Pirates 10 LANCASHIRE Hawks' rag-tag squad battled against both injury and the visiting Paisley Pirates at the Blackburn Arena last night..but found themselves well out of their depth as early as the first period, taking the
AS our three councillors are either unable, unwilling or incapable of cleaning up the area of the electorate who put them there, they should do the decent thing and resign. They should by now be fully aware of the filth we are surrounded by in Ribblesdale
FOLLOWING the cases in the USA - do we really have to copy everything they do - we are going to have a succession of litigants claiming that the tobacco companies should pay them for their present unfortunate condition. Lawyers representing the claimants
ONE of the unfair taints people living on so-called problem estates have to put up with is that all the residents' values are the same as those causing the problems. It is not so. Only a minority drag an area down. What better proof of that - and of the
Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy THE North West of England has a series of magnificent estuaries stretching from the Mersey and then on to the Ribble, the Wyre, the Lune and on into the mighty Morecambe Bay. From Victorian times almost to the present day
FILMS with a blues tint will form the latest attraction at East Lancashire's premier music event. Organisers of the 10th Burnley Blues Festival have unveiled details of a film festival to run alongside the world class acts which will perform in the town
The Entertainers: Paul Barry talks to JIM BOWEN BULLSEYE star Jim Bowen says it was the viewers he felt sorry for when the plug was pulled on the popular quiz show last year. "I was gutted when Bullseye finished. Not for myself, because it's got me a
A SENIOR policeman leading the hunt for a hit and run driver who left a 79-year-old grandfather lying seriously injured in the road has appealed to the motorist to listen to his conscience and give himself up. Acting Detective Chief Inspector Mick Gradwell
A SCULPTRESS is poised to take centre stage at the Chelsea Flower Show in a theme garden dedicated to the charity work of the entertainment industry. Clare Bigger, 30, of Lingfield Avenue in Clitheroe, who works from Trapp Forge Smithy, Simonstone, was
ROY Hodgson is hoping he can give Lars Bohinen's World Cup hopes a lift by releasing the midfielder for Norway's international with France next week. The Blackburn Rovers boss is well aware of how important the friendly fixture is to Bohinen - it could
BURNLEY captain Neil Moore is eyeing a double celebration by the end of the season after the Clarets put themselves within one win of Wembley last night. A 1-0 victory over local rivals Preston North End earned Burnley a crack at Grimsby Town in the two-legged
Auto Windscreens Shield (North) semi-final: Burnley 1 Preston North End 0 - Pete Oliver's big match verdict THOSE who deride the Auto Windscreens Shield suggesting it lacks passion and excitement should have been at Turf Moor last night. The tension was
