I WAS saddened by your recent report about vandalism at the children's play area in June Street at Queen's Park, Blackburn. I lived nearby 60 years ago and we used to play on a piece of spare land at the end of May Street and June Street. It was just
A PRICE war is raging across East Lancashire as death becomes a booming business. Competition between funeral directors is increasingly intense as people are constantly urged to consider the cost of funerals. In London shoppers are even being tempted
THE last factory in a once busy Rossendale village will close in May with the loss of 17 jobs. Panda Plastics in Whitewell Bottom was recently bought out by Nottinghamshire company Strata Products, but when the company assessed its purchase it found it
WHY are our politicians so loathe to tell us what the single European currency will mean to us? The abolition of sterling, emasculation of The Bank of England, and the handing over of our unreturnable $36,000 million of our UK official gold and dollar
FAMILY doctors came up with a rescue package which was thought to be able to save the threatened Hartley Hospital, in Colne. Health chiefs were planning to close Hartley at the end of the year as part of a massive saving demanded by the Government. But
THE new owners of a Colne abattoir pledged that 200 jobs were safe following a £1.8 takeover. The Bradford-based Woodhead Brothers Meat Company said it was now considering running down its Yorkshire operation and concentrating on the Colne plant. A spokesman
EUROPE is now having a major influence on East Lancashire's economy, a conference was told. The East Lancashire Economic Development Partnership is made up of public, private and voluntary sectors. It organised the event at Ewood Park with speakers including
WHEN is a listed building not a listed building - as with the old St James Parish Church steeple and memorial garden in Burnley due to be demolished soon? Answer: When it gets in the developer's way. When will Burnley wake up to the fact that the town
NO matter how much scientific evidence backed Britain's bid for the EU to lift its worldwide ban on UK beef exports, the government cannot really be surprised by or carp at the flat refusal by our partners in Europe. For it was simply too soon into the
MINISTERS have been accused of misleading Pendle MP Gordon Prentice over cutbacks in the special unit which discovered the latest link between mad cow disease and humans. Mr Prentice took up the question of cutbacks in the CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh
ALL THREE political leaders on Blackburn council are fighting for their seats in the May 2 elections. Labour council leader Coun Malcolm Doherty, Conservative leader Coun Don Heatlie-Jackson and Liberal Democrat leader Coun Paul Browne are standing for
LANCASHIRE'S chief trading standards officer has warned anyone taking part in a "money for nothing" scheme that they could face prosecution themselves. The county's trading standards department has had hundreds of complaints about the activities of German-based
ADRIAN Heath faces a potential keeper crisis as Burnley battle to climb clear of the Second Division's drop zone. Marlon Beresford had to pull out of last night's goalless draw with Bournemouth through a back injury. And the situation worsened when his
LEGAL action will be taken by Lancashire County Council to stop tipping on land at Sansbury Farm, Knotts Lane, Colne. The county's development control committee refused permission in 1992 for an extension of landfilling and restoration at the former brick
ACCRINGTON CC face a race against time in the hunt for a new professional. The season is less than three weeks away but the Thorneyholme Road club are still without a pro. "We have been hitting our head against a brick wall," said cricket chairman Peter
COLNE'S most famous son returned to reclaim his place of prominence in the town. The bronze bust of Wallace Hartley, heroic bandmaster on the ill-fated Titanic, came home after a year-long facelift in London. Two bronze statuettes which were stolen from
A NEW parliamentary group aimed at getting rid of land mines has been backed by two East Lancashire MPs. Hyndburn's Greg Pope and Burnley's Peter Pike are founder members of the all-party campaign. The All-Party Land Mine Eradication Group aims to gather
THE new headmaster of the Ribble Valley's most famous school certainly means business. Mr Adrian Aylward will bring with him a background of proven achievement in not only education but also the city and industry when he takes up his new position at Stonyhurst
WATER watchdogs have warned that cost-cutting within North West Water could be at the expense of more improvements in service. Ofwat carried out an inquiry into NWW and two other privatised companies over concerns that they were falling short in a number
A KEEN walker went up in the world when he scaled a massive mountain to raise money for charity. Graham Howarth, 33, of Colne Road, Burnley, climbed 19,340ft to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, and managed to collect £350 for
BRITISH Aerospace has upped the stakes in its bid to sell Hawk training jets to Australia by promising that companies there would get more than £500 million in benefits under the contract. The company said 700 jobs and more than a billion dollars would
SO Coun Bill Taylor (Letters, March 12) was disappointed by your reports of Blackburn Council's budget debate written by an unbiased reporter in possession of all budget proposals and who listened to the debate - and so he writes his own report. Once
UNIFORM specialists Simon Jersey have completed another major contract for Hertz. The Altham-based firm has supplied new outfits for the car hire firm's 500-strong quality inspection team throughout Europe. The new range incorporates the company's corporate
THE Second Division safety zone remains tantalisingly out of reach for Burnley boss Adrian Heath. It still needs only a couple of significant steps, rather than major strides, before the new Turf Moor regime can stop looking over their shoulders at the
LABOUR have their sights set on repeating last year's clean sweep in the Hyndburn borough council elections. Last May, the controlling group kept their promise of a landslide victory and won all 16 seats contested. This time around the Conservatives are
A REVOLUTIONARY new medical centre is to open its doors in East Lancashire - and allow hard-pressed family doctors to sleep easily! The development of a Primary Care Emergency Centre will mean hundreds of people in the Ribble Valley will not be able to
IN A new twist to the get-rich-quick "business club" caper that has been taking thousands of pounds off Lancashire savers, potential recruits were warned today that they could end up being sued by others they rope into the scheme - though doing that is
A FLEDGLING engineering firm has found the cutting edge to beat the competition. H20 Profiles, of Nelson, has patented a process which enables materials including glass and stainless steel to be cut. It uses a revolutionary high pressure water jet technique
A STRETCH of Roman Road in Blackburn will be closed tonight while motorway construction work is carried out on the new M65 extension. The road will be closed near the Roman Road industrial estate from 8pm tonight to 6am tomorrow, while motorway bridge
THE household waste disposal centre at Chapel Hill, Longridge, is to be extended. Lancashire County Council development control committee granted planning permission for a further 25 years, after which all containers and buildings will have to be removed
I HAVE an unusual hobby - collecting song badges. You may have never heard of these, as everybody I have contacted in the music industry, have never heard or come across them either. But I wonder if some of your readers may have the odd one sitting in
DISGRUNTLED customers have lodged a series of grisly gripes about the way some funerals have been conducted in the past year. Coffins and graves have been too small, ashes have been mislaid and funeral directors have been unsympathetic. The cost has been
CAMPAIGNERS won the backing of Ribble Valley Council again in another battle over wind farms in local beauty spots. Hot on the heels of victory over a recent application for a wind measuring mast on Longridge Fell, protesters urged the plannning and development
THIS week there were plenty of interesting letters, including the usual crop of sightings. The spies included Mr C J Sutcliffe, of Oakfield Avenue, Clayton-le-Moors, and Mrs Greta Adamson, of Lyndale Avenue, Wilpshire, who had an interesting observation
A MYSTERY fire gutted a two-storey factory early today. The spectacular blaze turned the night sky red as flames ripped through the roof of the Ace Group premises in Earby town centre. Pennine House, School Lane, was used for the manufacture of sheet
PAUL Mahorn, the striker taken on loan from Spurs by Adrian Heath, enjoyed a lively home debut for Burnley last night. But he was the first to admit that he wasted a glorious first-half chance to open the scoring. Mahorn notched on his debut at Wycombe
THE staggering success of East Lancashire's benefit fraud hotline is leading to the concept being adopted nationwide. More than 400 people rang up to report social security cheats in the first month after the hotline was set up in October. The special
LARS Bohinen's worst injury fears are developing into reality - and the Norwegian ace has no chance of returning to Blackburn Rovers' squad for the Easter double against Southampton and Newcastle. With Chris Sutton an equally unlikely participant, Rovers
A STRETCH of road where a man was seriously hurt in an accident has been described as a death trap by his daughter. Police had to deal with three serious accidents on the road between Church and West End in just one day. A toddler was left fighting for
YOUNG firms have been given a boost up the success ladder. A total of 17 businesses took part in the Livewire East Lancashire finals held at the Berkley Manor, Accrington. First prize in the existing business category went to Jamie Hall and Esther Rigby
