CUTLERY CHARGE: An idea to make children pay a service charge for taking packed lunches to school was quashed by education bosses in Bury. It was considered charging 5p a day for kids taking sandwiches to offset the cost of supplying and washing up cutlery and dishes.

CRACKING HOUSES: Residents in Dumers Lane said they would sue Bury Council over their crumbling homes. They claimed that sewer construction work was responsible for the collapse of one of the houses and the cracking of walls in others.

TROLLEY DASH: Thieves stole the keys for a Bury supermarket and then stole £500 from the store safe. The keys for the Fine Fair store in Walmersley Road were stolen from the home of the manageress.