A SET of new instruments is on its way to Thornton Cleveleys Band after a generous handout from the National Lottery. Chairman Andrew Swann was "over the moon" to receive confirmation that the band would receive a cash injection of £53,000, 90 per cent
TWO ice hockey-mad youngsters from Blackpool are looking forward to spending their New Year in Canada - hopefully beating the locals at their own game! Richard Hulme of Abbeyville and Joshua Langfield of Sawley Avenue, both 13, are keen players with the
CHRISTMAS is over and after the seasonal excesses of too much food and drink, most people make a few well-intentioned New Year's resolutions. This year the Citizen asked a few well-known faces around town what their hopes and thoughts were for 1998. Fylde
AEROSPACE workers in East Lancashire helped break an order book record in 1997. The Airbus consortium - which British Aerospace is a partner in - had its most successful year ever, winning firm orders for 480 aircraft worth almost 30 billion dollars.
THE woman who introduced Ring and Ride and Shopmobility to Bury is to receive an MBE. Mrs Alison Thomason, of Springside Road, Walmersley, was awarded the honour in the New Year list. She began her work improving services for disabled people in 1987,
PLUCKY Aimee Read was taken into hospital on New Year's Eve to undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant. The operation signals the end of months of anguished searching for a donor match for the five-year-old from Moorcroft in Edenfield. In December
BURY bobby Bill Gresty was the victim of an "undercover operation" - sprung by his bride. For fiancee Vivienne planned the perfect wedding day - without telling her bridegroom. Bill, who works at Bury CID's divisional headquarters, thought Vivienne must
FORMER Rovers star David Whelan today brought glad Christmas tidings to the City! The JJB Sports tycoon revealed that trading in the chain over the festive period in its stores had been very strong. The company reported a 47 per cent surge in turnover
THE borough took a battering on Christmas Eve as gale force winds swept across the country leaving a path of destruction. Firemen in Bury, Whitefield and Ramsbottom worked at full stretch throughout the evening and into the early hours of Christmas Day
A BITTER row over a village eyesore owned by a former Ribble Valley mayor is over. Ribchester villagers accused Anthony Jackson, who was mayor in 1993 and a parish councillor for 20 years, of scuppering their chances of winning the Best Kept Village competition
SEVEN starving dogs found in appalling conditions in a house in Bury are looking for new homes. RSPCA officers were called out the day before Christmas Eve to a terraced house in Rochdale Old Road, Fairfield, after neighbours complained to Bury's environmental
A BID may be made for National Lottery money to upgrade school sports facilities in Burnley after a top level meeting improved hopes for a brighter future. Burnley School Sports Association chairman Ian Cronshaw spoke of renewed optimism about local school
US President George Bush was taken ill at a state banquet in Tokyo and rushed for treatment. Japanese television at first said the 67-year-old president was taken by waiting ambulance to hospital, but later corrected the report and said he walked to his
COUNCIL officers are to carry out an investigation into complaints about improvement work on a housing estate. Members of Padiham and Hapton area sub-committee were told of alleged problems with Stonemoor Bottom estate, which has been undergoing a multi-million
STEVE Hampson held his wife Patricia's hand as they gazed at little Jonathan on the packed passenger plane. After nearly two years of torment, the couple were finally on their way home to Darwen with the Guatemalan boy they had battled to adopt legally
YOU either love it or loathe it! The £145 million M65 extension which finally linked East Lancashire to the M6 was opened last month amid much publicity. It was 20 years in the making and had never gone short on controversy. Even at the opening, there
BURNLEY'S ruling Labour group appeared in turmoil today after a revolt by more than a third of its councillors. They defied party whips and failed to back the setting up of a "Star Chamber" panel to probe council house queue-jumping allegations against
NORTHERN Ireland Minister Mo Mowlam takes a brave, unprecedented step when she goes the notorious Maze Prison tomorrow to meet loyalist terrorists face-to-face in an attempt to keep the peace process alive. But she tales a high-risk step, too. The consequence
THE MURK hanging over Burnley Council after three members of the ruling Labour group were named in an official inquiry for allegedly helping people to jump the queue for council houses is something that must be dispelled. Honesty, integrity and good local
Food News, with Christine Rutter THOUSANDS of people refuse to cut the throat of a living creature to put food on their plates. It is the by-product of a humane, caring, sharing 90s - or is it? This meat-free lifestyle actually had its roots more than
PAUL Weller could be back in Burnley's squad for Saturday's game against Second Division leaders Watford at Turf Moor. And that will give player-manager Chris Waddle a timely boost as - barring a dramatic change in circumstances - he is unlikely to be
GREEN-FINGERED members of a Blackpool environmental group are celebrating after receiving a grant to help them plant a tree and bulbs for the local community. Members of RONSA (Revitalisation of North Shore Area) wanted to spruce up Gynn Square roundabout
WYRE Borough Council has unanimously shown its support for deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's intervention in the threat to Liverpool's coastguard centre. Several Conservative councillors, including Jim Lawrenson for the Staina ward, had originally
TRANMERE ROVERS 0 BURY 0 HITTING bottom of the table on Boxing Day is hardly the best way to get the Christmas programme off to a flyer. But in a crucial game both sides needed to win Bury will be more satisfied with this point than their free-falling
SAVE Ashton Gardens campaigners got some pretty hefty encouragement when they heard that burly Sir Cyril Smith had decided to throw his full weight behind them. The larger-than-life Rochdale MP, who has been a frequent visitor to St Annes with his mother
A BLACKPOOL schoolboy is celebrating after being chosen from hundreds of hopefuls to star in a West End production of the Wizard of Oz. Mark Wiltshire, 13, of Oakland Avenue, Bispham, underwent two tough auditions for the part of the scarecrow before
FIRMS in East Lancashire are being urged to spread their wings across the Atlantic. The DTI is organising two seminars in the North West next month aimed at encouraging service sector companies to look at moving in to the North American market. The events
WAGE rises in Lancashire this year are likely to be less than inflation according to a survey published today. Almost two thirds of employers in the region said they had budgeted the 1998 pay settlement at or below 3.5 per cent compared with inflation
DIG deep, keep those donations rolling in and help make 1998 the year of the MRI Scanner Appeal. So says little Charlotte Dawson who stepped into the editor's shoes for the day to hammer home the message to Fylde folk. From her desk in the Citizen office
A BRAVE teenager smashed a ground floor window and helped a woman clamber out of her home after a suspected arson attack. Phil Taylor (17), kicked in one of the panes of the bay window at the house in Linton Avenue, Walmersley, Bury, seconds after spotting
A SCHOOLGIRL was raped after being driven off in a car by two men from outside a popular Bury night club. The 14-year-old girl was driven from the Roxy in Rochdale Road to an unknown house where the assault took place. Later, she was dropped off by car
A TOWN hall tower block, which needed massive repairs, was not built to the original design specifications, it was claimed. Councillor Eric Smith told the council meeting that concrete cladding on Blackburn town centre's landmark was only half the specified
BRAVE schoolboy John Potter is ready to celebrate a late Christmas with his family after winning his fight for life. He has been allowed home from hospital to continue his recovery from life-threatening injuries after a road accident. John's Christmas
POLICE say they are following up new information which could lead to the arrest of teenage girl con-artists who have been targeting elderly people across East Lancashire. Pensioners in Blackburn, Pendle and Burnley have been duped into letting girls -
REGARDING your story and opinion (LET, December 30) about Euro MP Mike Hindley's remark that Tony Blair is a Tory, it is a known fact that Mr Hindley has always leaned towards left-wing socialism. He and the world knows that it died years ago. Gorbachev
ANOTHER lousy day in paradise! And I've just found heaven. It's 12.30am in sunny California (although it is actually pouring down outside) and I am communicating with Lancashire, thanks to the Internet and e-mail. I have just discovered the Lancashire
ON January 3, in Accrington's Arndale Centre, my husband and I witnessed a young child of about three years old being violently struck in the back and then about the head by a young woman with another toddler in tow. We approached her to ask that she
ROY Hodgson is not about to jump into a £2 million transfer bid for Stoke City's teenage left back Andy Griffin, despite speculation in today's national newspapers, writes PETER WHITE. In fact, the Blackburn Rovers boss confirmed today that there was
DEAR British Telecom, I would like to report a fault on the line of a Mr Frank Teasdale. Having tried in vain all week to gain an answer from his number, I can only assume a technical problem exists. This is worrying because Mr Teasdale is the chairman
