Archive

  • Crackdown on terror kids

    REVOLUTIONARY plans to give councils power to sweep child criminals off the streets were unveiled by Blackburn MP Jack Straw at a conference today The Shadow Home Secretary revealed the hard-hitting policy at the launch of Blackburn's new "neighbour nuisance

  • ROVERS: Brian living on Borrows time

    FA Cup 4th round: Blackburn Rovers v Coventry City - Peter White on a Sky Blue who still dreams of cup glory VETERAN Coventry City defender Brian Borrows has suffered more FA Cup heartbreak in two games than most professional footballers experience in

  • Lessons to be learned

    THE anniversary of the horrendous fire bombing of the German cultural city of Dresden by British and American bombers of the Second World War was this week. I think it is just as important that the holocaust of Dresden should be remembered and the lesson

  • Pitch returns - now club must tackle water

    A FOOTBALL team which lost half its pitch when the M65 extension swallowed it up will soon have a full-size field again. However, Knuzden FC manager David Miller claims the team will still only be able to use the field during the summer because it is

  • Mass council house sell-off urged

    A MASSIVE sale of council homes is being urged by Conservatives in a bid to solve a borough's housing problems. Tory councillors in Blackburn are increasingly concerned about spiralling costs and growing numbers of properties standing empty. Around 500

  • CLARETS: Burnley deny Bristol bid for Nogan

    BURNLEY have strongly denied that Second Division promotion rivals Bristol City have made a move for Kurt Nogan. Sources in the West Country were today reporting that Ashton Gate boss Joe Jordan could be ready to make a bid for the unsettled Burnley star

  • In shape for top TV prize

    TV fame beckons for a Blackburn business that is getting in shape for success. Shapemaster Fitness, which manufactures exercise equipment from toning tables to running machines, has reached the last 24 of Granada's Flying Start business competition. Managing

  • Woe as school funds go down the drains!

    A RIBBLE Valley school has seen much-needed money for books and teachers go down the drain on repairs to blocked pipes. St Augustine's RC High School, Billington, has been plagued with blocked drainage pipes and forced to pay out more than £1,000 on repairs

  • Top cancer doc's dream comes true

    DR Graham Read's "dream" will come alive when the £5 million Lancashire and Lakeland Radiotherapy Unit opens on the doorstep of East Lancashire on February 24. As clinical director of cancer services at the Royal Preston Hospital, he has spearheaded the

  • Strikers risking jobs - warning

    STRIKING lecturers at Accrington and Rossendale College will be putting their own jobs and many others at risk, college bosses warned today. They hope members of lecturers' union NATFHE will reconsider their decision for an indefinite stoppage from one

  • CLARETS: We won't throw in the towel, says Heath

    TIME is something you can't give a football manager in the 1990s. But Adrian Heath and John Ward must be given leeway to manoeuvre at Turf Moor - even if Burnley do not achieve their promotion goal next May. That, perhaps, is a bold statement to deliver

  • That's just great, my old China!

    AN EAST Lancashire firm is winning the export war in the Far East. Blackburn-based Longworth has won a new contract worth £250,000 to supply plant and technology to a polyester film business in China. This is the fifth such order supplied by the Glenfield

  • Cotton tales: Former weaver puts memories into print

    GRANDMOTHER and former weaver Winnie Bridges is spinning a new tale about the rich tapestry of life in a Lancashire cotton town. Her illustrated book Threads of Lancashire Life, to be published in June, is the second by the remarkable 67-year-old authoress

  • Watch out Wall Street - here comes Ramsbottom!

    STOCK MARKET "raiders" from Ramsbottom are celebrating success as share-pickers of the year. The ten family and friends who make up the Belcombe Investment Club left professional pundits in the shade with their shareholdings soaring by 32 per cent in

  • Axe to fall on shop jobs

    NORWEB shops across East Lancashire are set to close at the start of next month with scores of job losses. Eighty-three of the electrical group's high street shops, most of them in East Lancashire's town centres, are being closed at the start of March

  • Counting the cost of road chaos

    PETER Hobkirk recently raised several indisputable points (LET, January 24) about the traffic chaos in Blackburn's Darwen Street and Boulevard access roads. However, the problems for motorists are not restricted to that part of town. The traffic flow

  • Dumping ground danger for kiddies

    THIS dangerous dumping ground full of broken glass, used syringes and rotting food is just yards from a children's play area. Concerned social worker Charles Payne fears a child will be seriously hurt unless the dump, on land owned by Rossendale Council

  • ROVERS: Forget Sven, pleads Parkes

    TONY Parkes made a special FA Cup plea to his players today - forget all the speculation about Sven Goran Eriksson's future. On the eve of tomorrow's long-awaited fourth round tie at Ewood, Blackburn Rovers' caretaker-boss urged his team to concentrate

  • Brighter bit of cash

    CLOTHING company Western Fashions has brightened up its image with the aid of a major City Challenge grant. Western Fashions, of Randal Street, Blackburn, received £75, 685 in grant aid to help refurbish the exterior of the building. Businesses in the

  • Go-ahead for good news paper

    CLAIMS that a new quarterly newspaper about the work of Burnley Council would be little more than propaganda for the ruling Labour group have been denied. Chief Executive Roger Ellis, told Independent councillor Harry Brooks: "It would be unlawful for

  • Smarten up call to MP

    AN MP was today accused of helping wreck a town's image - because of his 'scruffy' appearance. Burnley's Peter Pike was slammed as "one of the worst-dressed MPs in Westminster" by council critic Harry Brooks, who has labelled the MP's dress sense 'disastrous

  • 'Ousted' councillor urges probe

    AN OUSTED councillor at the centre of a long running row has called for a public inquiry into the dispute. Tom Sharratt, a Labour county councillor for Samlesbury for the last 16 years, was de-selected at a branch meeting of his party last month. And

  • Chunnel blow

    THE opening date of the £8.9 billion Channel Tunnel was delayed, Eurotunnel bosses announced. The delay, which was blamed on contractors failing to meet deadlines, proved to be a major blow for the company. Despite problems with finance and construction

  • Fire rescue

    A QUICK-THINKING father rescued his family from their smoke-filled house by knotting bedsheets into a makeshift rope. Michael McGuire and his wife, Jean, woke to find thick black smoke in their bedroom after a fire started in the lounge. He rushed to

  • CRICKET: Simpson quits Acre Bottom

    JACK Simpson has walked out on Ramsbottom CC after being sacked as captain. The wicketkeeper and opening bat was informed by letter that he would no longer lead the side. He has said he will not play for Ramsbottom again nor serve on the club's committee

  • Thumbs down to traffic system

    FOR weeks we have been saying that Blackburn's new town centre traffic scheme is a disaster. But Blackburn council has steadfastly denied that there is anything wrong, claiming that they have had only one official complaint. Now we have proof of what

  • Everyone must help stamp out the tiny terrors

    SHADOW Home Secretary and MP for Blackburn, Jack Straw today unveiled his revolutionary plans which would give councils power to sweep child criminals off the streets. On the face of it this is a splendid idea. Communities throughout Britain are sick

  • Something different

    I HAVE heard a rumour that town planners are considering a revolutionary new idea to ease the traffic congestion in the centre of Blackburn. I have heard that for a one-month trial period, all the one way street directions are to be reversed, and all

  • Council books 'fine' says audit

    THE books of Hyndburn Council have been given a clean bill of health by external auditors. And councillors facing a difficult budget have been urged to be prudent in the forthcoming financial year. The council's financial status is examined each year

  • Brown's taxing times pay dividends

    Political Focus, with Bill Jacobs DESPITE Gordon Brown's efforts to make voters trust Labour on income tax, 55 per cent of the nation still expects him to increase it. The figure is exactly the same as in 1992. The poll result suggests that five years

  • ROVERS: Maybe I was misunderstood, says Eriksson

    SVEN Goran Eriksson today tried to cool speculation surrounding his future, saying he might have been misunderstood in a recent television interview. After overseeing training at Sampdoria's training ground in Genoa, he was asked by reporters to comment

  • Stephen's wish was a procession past Ewood

    BLACKBURN Rovers fan Stephen Coates's funeral procession was diverted for three miles past Ewood Park football ground to fulfill his dying wish. Stephen, 26, who suffered from the muscle-wasting disease muscular dystrophy, died from pneumonia in Blackburn

  • Two looking for trouble

    A TEAM of two dedicated housing officers have been entrusted with the task of putting Blackburn's pioneering strategy into action. One of them is staying undercover because of the nature of his surveillance work. But tenancy service officer Paul Crowther

  • Net site names warning

    BUSINESSES setting up an Internet site need to be careful when choosing site names, warns Manchester law firm Pannone and Partners. In what is thought to be the first court case in the UK, the High Court has ruled against an individual who called his