BLACKBURN Citizen's Advice Bureau has been recognised for the high quality of its advice on welfare benefit law. The bureau has become the first in the country to obtain a Solicitor Legal Aid Franchise - an award presented for work carried out by the
A MAJOR rescue operation was launched today to save one of East Lancashire's biggest textile firms. The Wills Group, which operates Stonebridge Mills in Oswaldtwistle and Woodvale Mills, Waterfoot, has been placed in administration after it was unable
WHAT goes down must come up for the growing number of yo-yo addicts as the latest craze takes off - and comes back again - in East Lancashire playgrounds. Toy shops are turning away customers as young spin-doctors are walking the dog, rocking the baby
Division Two: Gillingham v Burnley - Pete Oliver's big match preview LONDONER Glen Little heads towards home tomorrow with a key role to play in licking Burnley's away form into shape. The Wimbledon-born midfielder is always a potential match-winner for
PLANS to bring thousands of visitors to Blackburn and Darwen in the year 2000 look set to attract major funding. Council bosses say they are confident their bids for millennium cash will be successful, giving them money to spend on a series of events
STEVE Blatherwick has joined the mini-exodus from Turf Moor by joining Chesterfield on loan. Blatherwick follows Mark Winstanley and Tony Parks in finding new clubs on a temporary basis at least and should make his debut for the Spireites at Manchester
A BOUNCER at a Blackburn nightclub allegedly raped a teenager after going back to her home in the early hours. David Johns, 20, who was working on the door at Millennium, is said to have got into bed with the 17-year-old after telling her: "You want it
A TRIO of leading German clubs are lining up to try to tempt Ewood striker Martin Dahlin back to the Bundesliga. And, if a suitable offer came in, Blackburn Rovers would almost certainly not stand in the way of the Swedish international who has failed
FUMING teachers at Beardwood High School, Blackburn, withdrew their "goodwill" after a headmaster hit them with a smoking ban. They were told they had to leave the premises if they wanted to smoke. They got their union NAS UWT involved and withdrew "goodwill
LANCASHIRE put their championship hopes in the hands of Surrey's batsmen today. By being bowled out for 185 on the first day of their last game against Hampshire, and therefore failing to take a batting point, Lancashire left the way open for Leicestershire
MARKSMAN Ian Peel today added individual shooting silver to his pairs' bronze at the Commonwealth Games. The 40-year-old Great Harwood shooter finished the first day of the Individual Trap competition in joint first place at the Langkawi Range, 300 miles
SUPER optimist Jack Simmons will not concede defeat in Lancashire's championship bid until it becomes mathematically impossible. Leaders Leicestershire were on the brink of clinching the title today after piling up 349-4 on the first day of their game
I SINCERELY hope that the mother of 10 children who fleeced more than £60,000 in a benefits fraud (LET, September 9) is made to pay every penny back plus interest. When my brother died, he had allegedly been overpaid on his pension by £175 and I was held
YOUR brilliant editorial concerning the role of Blackburn Infirmary (LET, September 15) both picks out what's wrong with the present amenities and resources and compares them with those at Queen's Park Hospital. Speaking from personal experience as a
FURTHER to Andy Dineen's comments (Letters, August 19) concerning the 'bail' hostel in Clayton Street, Blackburn, the whole episode is a worrying commentary on the state of local decision-making by Blackburn with Darwen Council. It is now clear that the
THINGS got hot when two friends went out for a late night curry, magistrates heard. The two men started an argument which erupted into a fight and ended with them rolling around on the floor, kicking and punching each other in a restaurant full of diners
MARKSMAN Ian Peel today added individual shooting silver to his pairs' bronze at the Commonwealth Games. The 40-year-old Great Harwood shooter finished the first day of the Individual Trap competition in joint first place at the Langkawi Range, 300 miles
A TRIO of leading German clubs are lining up to try to tempt Ewood striker Martin Dahlin back to the Bundesliga. And, if a suitable offer came in, Blackburn Rovers would almost certainly not stand in the way of the Swedish international who has failed
KULA World is a super cool 3D puzzle game from the burgeoning stable of publishers Sony. It is basically a fiendishly intriguing platform floating in space and you have control of a beachball (and why not?) which you must roll around the course, collecting
THOUSANDS of employees of some of Britain's biggest companies are wearing clothes designed and manufactured by Altham-based Simon Jersey. The firm's new look national accounts team, headed by Richard Edwards, now serves customers including brewery group
CONSERVATORY roofing firm Ultraframe was today celebrating a double award. The Clitheroe-based stock market success story has won the Expansion category in the British Venture Capital Association/Financial Times awards. And founder John Lancaster also
BLAST it! Well you definitely will if you get your hands on Forsaken, the shoot 'em up extravaganza from Probe published by Acclaim Entertainment. It's the usual nightmare scenario, set in the future when scientists have gone just a tad too far..... In
A SOLDIER absent without leave smashed a bank window when he found it shut. Robert Jones, 19, of Fir Street, Nelson, thumped the glass in the door of Burnley's Lloyds Bank in temper when he arrived minutes after it closed, Burnley Magistrates heard. Jones
A LEADING industrialist has blasted the Government over its management of the economy. Tony Rink, joint chairman of Darwen-based Wolstenholme Rink, launched the attack on the Labour government as his firm revealed the continuing damaging effects of the
RAIDERS escaped with £1,300 in wages from an old folk's home in Great Harwood despite a brave attempt by the manageress to foil their getaway. The two thieves struck at Great Harwood Lodge residential home for the elderly, in Edward Street, at 4pm yesterday
EXTRA cash has been awarded to Blackburn with Darwen Council to help with the cost of its change to unitary status. Blackburn town hall took sole control of all services in the borough in April when it became independent of Lancashire County Council.
BUSMEN slapped a ban on evening services into West Craven after weeks of threats and abuse from hooligans. The drivers - sickened by the behaviour of a small group of drunken yobs in Barnoldswick and Earby - decided not to put up with it any longer. The
BLACKBURN Hawks player/coach Bobby Haig is still reeling after last weekend's 7-5 reverse at home to Solihull, but has vowed to take revenge on foreign soil on Sunday. Haig is confident that with a full week's training under their belt Hawks will come
ANXIOUS to appear in tune with the public, Tony Blair's "People's Government" periodically tests its policy ideas at so-called focus groups of voters, but perhaps Labour strategists would do well to read tonight's newspaper to see what the score is. For
PROGRESS in the FA Cup would provide a welcome tonic for Clitheroe after the club sacked their management team last weekend and then slipped to a second successive defeat at Salford in midweek. Standing in their way tomorrow, however, will be former Shawbridge
Non-league round-up THE magic of the FA Cup comes to The Showground tomorrow when Great Harwood Town take on Whitley Bay in a first qualifying round fixture. But manager Ian McGarry is once again hit by selection problems with Mick Lynch, Mark Walsh,
ON TUESDAY September 15, I took part in a march through Preston to County Hall with some of the residents and relatives of Whiteacres Home for the Elderly in Burnley to fight its closure. The elderly men and their relatives were out in the rain for two
A MAN has been cleared of slashing another man's face outside Burnley Superbowl. Michael Furlong was found not guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm by a Burnley Crown Court jury after a three-day trial. Furlong, 30, of Cambridge Close
ROOFING worker David Farrimond suffered a fractured skull in a mystery incident at Walshaw High School, Burnley. Mr Farrimond, 21, was found by a colleague bleeding heavily from the ears on the school car park at 10am yesterday . He was some distance
HEALTH chiefs have resisted residents' appeals and rejected a bid for a new GP surgery in, Stoneyholme, Burnley. And today Burnley's deputy council leader Rafique Malik, said East Lancashire Health Authority members had totally failed to grasp the need
LOCAL clubs and organisations are invited to take a free listing in the 1999 Hyndburn Residents' Guide now being compiled. Clubs from bellringers to yoga clubs already listed will be contacted automatically, and newcomers simply need to complete a freepost
STAFF and union officials at Holland's Pies have called an urgent meeting after managers announced plans to contract cleaning work to a private company. The move would affect 16 night shift staff who will be offered replacement posts at the Baxenden factory
A FATHER who cut his young sons' throats in a brutal knife attack has been jailed for nine years. Chef Stephen Schofield, 33, slashed the throats of his two children when a domestic row exploded into violence. He was sentenced to nine years at Manchester
RAIDERS escaped with £1,300 in wages from an old folk's home in Great Harwood despite a brave attempt by the manageress to foil their getaway. The two thieves struck at Great Harwood Lodge residential home for the elderly, in Edward Street, at 4pm yesterday
A FORMER building company manager was left shell-shocked and fuming after contractors carrying out repairs for the council left his back yard looking like a "bomb site". Richard Cragg, of Higher Antley Street, Accrington, called on housing bosses to clean
ACCOUNTANTS Catherine Gwynne and Vanessa McCourt are celebrating exam success. Catherine, of Nelson and Accrington accountants Ainsworths, has passed her final chartered accountancy exams. And Vanessa has just completed her intermediate level accounting
WRONG information was given to police about an escape of acid gases from Nipa Laboratories, Oswaldtwistle, a new liaison group heard. As a result, a talked-of evacuation was stood down and it was lucky the incident did not call for an evacuation, said
THERE was one PlayStation game I didn't really, really want - but I got it. I've put this off for quite a while (a few weeks anyway) but a games reviewer has to do what a games reviewer has to do. Not that Spice World is a game. It is, we are told, an
AS well as knowing the game inside out, another essential for any football manager is an extremely thick skin. Never has the Press been so outspoken about a team AND a manager's performance. Get it right and they treat you like a God, get it wrong and
A GRANT has helped smooth the way to business success and new jobs for a Haslingden firm. Advanced Technical Coatings had a problems with an uneven factory floor which was damaging machinery and products. The company, which supplies railway fittings for
IT'S time for some butchery with Cardinal Syn, the new gory chop-em-to bits 3-D fighting game from Kronos Digital Entertainment. And if violence, buckets of blood and schoolboy-type bad taste make a good game then this release, published by Sony Computer
IT'S bathtime. Well, not really but you might feel like you are in the bath if and when you take the plunge with Treasures of the Deep, the action adventure from Namco released by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is something of a novelty in that
A DRIVER without a licence ignored a police officer and struggled in an attempt to resist arrest, Burnley Magistrates heard. Derek Cummins, 37, had been spotted behind the wheel in the early hours and carried on driving, despite the officer's attempts
A BANNED driver, spotted by police behind the wheel, had now "stopped being a criminal" Burnley Magistrates heard. William Knox Thompson Butler, 27, lived for the care of his six-year- old son and had given up going out looking for trouble and mixing
GORDON Prentice has launched a two-pronged drive to ensure local people make the most of the countryside. The Pendle MP is pressing the government to do more to protect areas of outstanding natural beauty and open them to visitors. And on Sunday he will
TWO boroughs in East Lancashire have cashed in on a total of £170,000 from a new 'green kitty' to spend on community projects to improve the environment. The new community-based environmental charity for Hyndburn, the Prospects Foundation, has secured
A PLAN to build a supermarket which will create around 150 new jobs in Darwen looks set to be referred to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for a final decision. Planning bosses at Blackburn Town Hall recommend councillors grant planning permission
