Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Millennium round-up

EAST Lancashire welcomed the new millennium with a trouble-free night of celebrations - but many pubs and clubs were left feeling flat as revellers enjoyed the party of a lifetime closer to home.

Police, fire and ambulance officers who spent months planning for the biggest party ever said the night passed off peacefully and said their pleas for people to only ring 999 in an emergency had been heeded.

Around 400 party goers spilled on to the streets from pubs and bars in the centre of Blackburn and congregated outside the town hall to watch the special clock countdown.

Police watched on as the good natured crowd danced and sang in the streets and watched the fireworks overhead.

Fireworks echoed across Blackburn and Darwen area as scores of people marked the new century with a bang as well as watching two council displays, although rain and foggy conditions spoiled the spectacle for some.

But Margo Grimshaw, flamboyant owner of Blackburn club Never Never Land and four pubs, said she had made no money on New Year's Eve and believes many other venues may have lost money or barely recouped costs.

Her club's doormen were paid triple time plus a £100 bonus and other staff were also given rises, but the venue was only as busy as an ordinary Friday night.

She said: "I went around Blackburn and the whole town centre was very quiet. No-one's made any money out of it." Many pubs closed for the night or staged private parties for staff and friends and Mrs Grimshaw blamed hype about high prices and pub staff demanding exorbitant wages for the let-down.

She said: "All the hype made the staff greedy and DJs and waitresses were demanding hundreds of pounds to work. People's expectations were too high." She claimed media warnings of high prices by taxi drivers and venues put customers off, even though prices were dropped closer to the big night. She had considered closing her club but decided to keep it open for her regular customers.

She said: "A lot of people stopped at home because they were frightened of the costs."

Other town centres in the area were similarly subdued with many pubs simply not bothering to open their doors, although in Darwen, several hundred people gathered in the shopping centre.

In most of the smaller towns, including Clitheroe, some places were busy but many people opted to enjoy the millennium celebrations at house parties or at home.

One of the quietest towns in the area was Accrington, where just a few stray people took to the streets to join in the celebrations.

Liam Nolan and his friend Janet Ramsden waited on their own outside Accrington town hall for the party to begin. Liam said: "We came into the town to join in the celebrations. We were quite surprised to see no one around. We thought there would be a big party going on."

The Lancashire Police operations room at Hutton received 310 emergency calls between midnight and 6am - compared with 78 last year.

Seventy patients attended Blackburn Infirmary's casualty department between midnight and 9am on New Year's Day, slightly lower than last year. Between midnight and 6am, 525 emergency calls were made to the ambulance service across the county - an increase of 25 per cent on 1999.

Fire Brigade spokesman John Taylor said: "We had a fairly quiet night and there were only around eight fires across the whole of the county."

Geoff Sutcliffe, chairman of Blackburn and District Licensed Victuallers' Association, said: "Things seemed to have been pretty quiet for pubs in the town centre, but the local pubs with a good bunch of regulars did OK. I think it was like the eclipse - there was too much hype earlier in the year. People expected it was going to be expensive so lots of them stayed at home and did their own thing."

Mr Sutcliffe, licensee of The Manxman, Higher Croft, Blackburn, said: "We did all right because we are a little bit isolated up here and we had an all-ticket do for our regulars."

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