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CALLING all former pupils of Stand Grammar School.
THE best of Lancashire food and drink was on offer at Northcote Manor, Langho, when producers showcased their products.
TWO families whose behaviour condemned neighbours to months of misery have been evicted from their homes.
RESIDENTS and council officials have agreed to install cameras near a piece of land in a bid to tackle troublesome children.
PARISHIONERS have won the first round of a fight to remove a yellow peril from outside their church.
RESIDENTS are celebrating the completion of a new £52,000 floodlit venue for community events.
ATHERTON Team Five starred last Thursday in a final presentation showcasing their achievements as Groundwork's Prince's Trust Volunteers during their 12-weeks Personal Development Programme challenge.
A TAXI driver was dragged from his car and punched during a late night road rage attack, a court was told.
THE pioneering spirit of Atherton businesswoman Vicky Mannion has been regally recognised.
A NEW project to protect and conserve plants and wildlife for future generations has been launched at Glazebury.
AN Atherton trader ordered to remove plants from the front of his shop has claimed that Wigan Council is being ridiculous -- and committing a crime against the community.
RESIDENTS are set to fight plans for a proposed link road to ease traffic congestion between Wigan and Atherton.
FAR reaching consequences of the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon where revealed by Brian Dixon when he addressed Culcheth WI.
CLASSIC car enthusiasts showed off Mustangs, Minis and Jaguars as the Haynes Motor Museum Classic and Sportscar Tour passed through the Ribble Valley at Browsholme Hall.
OVER 40 DJs will be attending Lowton Civic Centre on Friday for the annual Northern Soul fundraiser.
RAMSBOTTOM is making the final preparations for its May Day celebrations.
VISITORS to Radcliffe cemetery were shocked on Tuesday to discover dozens of headstones flattened.
I AM collecting used stamps, postcards and picture phone cards to help Guide Dogs for the Blind.
I RECENTLY took my daughter to Elton Reservoir to feed the ducks. Someone had obviously had a picnic and had left cans and plastic bags strewn around.
I HAVE read that litter louts might be fined. I agree. I think that anyone who drops litter should be fined at least £50. I think this because I am not pleased with all the litter on the floor. If you fine people who drop litter, the world will be a…
ONE hundred years after the 6-0 FA Cup Final win over Derby County, Bury FC fans marked the centenary of one of the most significant events in the history of the mighty Shakers by walking to Rochdale, raising funds and having a laugh along the way.
HAVING read your two-page spread about the visit to Bury by our friends from Datong in China, I was wondering whether Bury Council's chief executive, Mr Mark Sanders, could enlighten the council tax payers of Bury about precisely which Bury firms are…
RESIDENTS in Kelbrook could see their village undergo a transformation, with a new parking area and extension to the village hall.
EVELYN Glennie's is an amazing story. Profoundly deaf since the age of 12, she has gone on to become one of the world's leading percussionists in a field where few had attempted to play solo before.
LEIGH Townswomen's Guild have two contrasting meetings during May.
LEIGH Zodiacs trainer Elaine Sutton was overwhelmed with the response to her plea for a new venue for practising.
BAKERS Greggs, which has a shop in Bury, has appointed Maxine Warner as senior area manager for the North West.
A BUSINESSWOMAN who hails from "Down Under" hopes to put fledgling companies firmly on their feet.
THE Wigan Pier Theatre Company is presenting a new musical by Ian Hayles "20th Century.co.uk".
AN OPEN day and craft fair takes place on Monday (May 5) at the Wyre Estuary Country Park ecology centre, River Road, Stanah, from 11am-4pm.
LEIGH folk group Calico have never forgotten founder member Joe Roberts.
With the south stand set to be replaced shortly, artist David Wright has produced a painting which also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the famous FA Cup victory.
CULTURE vultures are invited to work with local artists for a unique May celebration.
A SMOULDERING cigarette could have sparked an 'intense' fire which killed a Blackpool man at the weekend.
ST JOSEPH'S Players perform a play with a comical twist next week.
IT WASN'T just Blackpool's FA Cup win that made 1953 a special sporting year.
A BLACKPOOL man who provided cheap cigarettes for street sellers on the resort's Golden Mile has been forced to hand over more than £100,000 he made from smuggling.
FROM multiplex to silver screen -- meet Blackpool's newest film stars!
A POPULAR Cleveleys festival has been saved after a new group of residents stepped forward to organise future events.
LABOUR lost their grip in South Ribble last night as three of their seats were snatched away -- leaving the Tories the largest party on the council.
ACCRINGTON'S South African professional Andre Seymour sees their clash with Lowerhouse as a chance for the side to extend a winning run.
CLITHEROE face a tough trip to early table toppers Settle on Saturday in the Jennings Ribblesdale Cricket League.
MAKING their rivals green with envy is Bury-based Greenpower Technologies, Ltd.
TWO homes in Prestwich were raided by police on Wednesday as part of a synchronised dawn swoop by 250 police.
RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has called on the Government to support development of the Hawk trainer jet manufactured by BAE Systems.
A DISGRACED former solicitor had her request for an appeal dismissed after a tribunal heard she has vanished.
THE number of boarders at Stonyhurst College has shot through the roof, thanks to Harry Potter and a £1million outlay on new pupil digs.
RONNIE Jepson takes his Burnley reserve side to Tranmere this afternoon looking to secure their place in the Avon Insurance Premier Division.
BURNLEY could be watched by the lowest league crowd in their post-war history at Wimbledon on Sunday.
STAN Ternent has revealed his hands were tied by the financial plight of the club, leaving him with no choice but to release 13 players from the club.
STEVE Davis has described being released from Burnley as the lowest point of his career.
DARWEN face two difficult fixtures in the Northern Premier League in the space for three days according to their chairman Peter Lamster.
CHORLEY skipper Jim Fazackerley has called on his players to stamp their authority on the Northern Premier League with a quick-fire double this weekend.
COLLECTOR Ann Arnold opened her boxes of memories for Culcheth WI.
A LOOK at events, from amateur theatre to rambles through our beautiful countryside.
A HOST of worthy winners have accepted their accolades at the annual presentation night of The Clitheroe and District Pool League.
Kiko Rodriguez has scored a lot of goals in his time but few can equal the stunning strike that gave Miners a record number of Hospital Cup victories.
Tell Clive Dinsdale that the future is Futsal and you would be preaching to the converted.
REGARDING the disposal of industrial waste, why must a business which already pays a minimum of double the cost of domestic rates then have to pay extra to have commercial waste removed?
I, FOR ONE, object to Blackburn householders being called lazy by the man in charge of cleaning the streets (LET, April 24).
IN your article (LET, April 24) about house prices near the M65 Services development at Darwen, planning chairman Councillor Frank Connor says that local residents have been kept informed along every step of the way of this development.
I LIVE in an area where I have to pay for parking permits, not only for myself but also an additional one for an occasional visitor -- only to find that on match days at Ewood Park, I cannot park in the street I live in and pay a fee each year for the…
THE shameful attitude of the Government and the Ministry of Defence when it comes to tax breaks and wages for those who risked their lives in Iraq, reminded me of the poem 'Tommy,' by Rudyard Kipling.
ALTHOUGH not opposed to the principle of recycling, I fail to see the advantage of going to the expense of doing so in the case of newspaper and garden refuse.
LEIGH East Councillor Brian Jarvis was so confident his wife, Barbara, would join him on Wigan Council that he bought her a car to cover the sprawling Leigh Council ward.
NATURAL Born Mincer started out with such promise as colourful camp commando -- Julian Clary -- emerged from the wings on a giant motorised stiletto.
THE winners of this year's Orphanage Cup and the Blackburn Combination champions will play each other to raise funds for a player who broke his neck in a sickening accident last week.
St Theodore's have successfully defended the Keighley Cup after a hard fought victory against the 'old enemy' Ivy Bank.
ANDREW Ramshead was a double winner in the second round of the Pendle Forest Orienteering Spring Series.
Morgan's A 195, Morgan's B 238; Leigh Miners 218, Bowling Club B 227; Bowling Club A 218, Gardeners 180.
Cricket Club 147, Tyldesley 115; Westleigh 100, Botanical Gardens 159; St Paul's B 159, St Paul's A 98; Rugby Union 127, Brunswick 144; Golborne Cons 163, Gardeners 92.
LEIGH Miners Rangers U11s and 14s have just returned from a successful tour of Villefranche in south west France.
LEIGH Ospreys Junior Angling Club enjoyed two Easter fixtures at Partridge Fisheries thanks to owner David Ikin.
IF the far-right British National Party's ground-breaking three-seat victory in Burnley last year was a shock, then its grasp last night of six seats to become the second-largest party on the council can only be described as startling.
Tuesday: Group "A" - Atherton Liberals "B" 206, Leigh Bowling "A" 172; Gardeners "B" 196, Leigh Rugby Union 180; Leigh Bowling "B" 238, Atherton Conservatives 210; Leigh Liberals 248, Tyldesley Conservatives 212.
ASTLEY & Tyldesley Cycle Speedway entertained Hull at Gin Pit on Sunday in a British Team Championship, Preliminary Round match.
LEIGH seconds won the toss and chose to bat on a wicket, which had been used the previous week and allowed more than 400 runs to be scored on it.
IRECEIVED another little gem through the post this week, one which brought information of terrific interest to jazz aficionados.
IT was one of the longest band names in history.
ONE of the most enduring and influential pop bands of the glam rock era take to the stage in Preston as part of their first nationwide tour in 30 years.
SEX, jealousy, intrigue and violence... who would have thought Blackpool's Grand Theatre could be home to all this?
ROSSENDALE'S first ever Liberal Democrat councillor could find himself playing kingmaker after the 2003 elections left Rossendale a hung council.
A 21-YEAR-OLD man has appeared before Burnley magistrates after a pensioner was allegedly hit by a flying ashtray, thrown from the beer garden of a town centre pub.
A DRUNKEN man sat down in the road as police escorted Sheffield Wednesday supporters to their train on Saturday, a court was told.
TWO people have appeared before magistrates in connection with a dog attack which left a seven-year-old boy in hospital.
A MAN who called at a late-night garage for some cigarettes ended up being attacked with an iron bar, a court was told.
THE Mayor of Burnley Councillor Gordon Birtwistle is planning a charity night at the Railway Club, Rosegrove, tonight, in aid of the Scanner Appeal.
BURNLEY MP Peter Pike has welcomed an assurance from the Home Office that it does not insist that landlords of asylum seekers provide them with colour TVs and telephones.
WITCHCRAFT enthusiast James Bowman could have lain injured for several hours on moorland above Todmorden before he died, a court heard.
IT may be party time at Gigg Lane on Saturday but Andy Preece will accept nothing other than another passionate performance.
SHAKERS boss Andy Preece reckons his charges already have a psychological edge on their play-off rivals.
CHILDREN who go shopping with their parents in the Pendle Rise Shopping Centre, Nelson, this month will be invited to join in a programme of activities.
COMMUNITY and voluntary groups in Pendle are being invited to attend a funding workshop on Tuesday, at Brierfield Town Hall, from 11am to 1.30pm.
A POLICE officer who led the search for a ten-year-old missing schoolboy in Burnley has praised the community for their help.
CONTRARY to the national picture, the Conservatives failed to make any gains in Preston City Council's elections.
POLICE in Preston are appealing for witnesses to an armed robbery that took place on Wednesday.
LABOUR party chiefs admitted they had failed to get their message across in Burnley after the BNP took six new seats.
THE BNP grabbed a massive foothold in East Lancashire on a night when it became the official opposition in Burnley and won thousands of votes elsewhere.
OLDER folk are being invited to step out and visit new places or try different activities.
CONFIDENCE is sky high as National League Division One leaders Leigh Centurions expect to make it a hat-trick of league wins when they visit Batley Bulldogs on Sunday.
ANDY COLE'S stunning strike against Liverpool at Anfield has been voted the winner of the Peter White Memorial Trophy.
BLACKBURN Rovers are urging fans to 'get down early' for tomorrow's final home game of the season against West Bromwich Albion.
DEFLATED West Brom manager Gary Megson is wishing away the rest of the season -- so the club can launch their bid to return to the Premier League.
BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness today admitted he has shelved his plans to sign Hakan Sukur -- but denied there is any rift between the pair.
BLACKBURN midfielder Garry Flitcroft today said it's 'win or bust' in Rovers' battle to qualify for Europe.
A NELSON teenager sent to custody after a "catalogue of appalling crime" asked a court for a chance and got it.
ATHERTON CC had a mixed start to the new season. Featuring in two low scoring matches, they failed by 15 runs to beat Lostock in the first Bolton Association game on Saturday while the following day they reversed matters in the first round of the…
LOWTON soldier Lance Corporal Mike Morgan could soon be enforcing law and order after successfully completing the tough course to become a military policeman.
THIS Sunday (May 4) sees Blackpool celebrate its greatest contribution to sporting history.
COULD it really be true... Blackpool Tower is being thrown on the scrap heap in favour of a younger model direct from the USA?
POLICE have defended the "naming and shaming" an 11-year-old boy banned from the streets of South Shore by an ASBO after his mother complained of unfair treatment.
ANIMAL welfare experts have welcomed a move to introduce a live 'theatre arena' by the controversial new owners of Blackpool Zoo.
FOR some time now it has been the tradition that members of staff from Westleigh High School take on Westleigh Warriors Basketball Team at some point during the school year.
HOSPITALS in East Lancashire have fared well in a snap inspection looking at conditions for patients.
A 16-YEAR-OLD has organised a charity lunch in aid of Cancer Research UK after watching her mother battle ovarian cancer.
A FAMILY will spend this weekend hiking a marathon distance to Stonehenge in memory of a neighbour who died of cancer on Valentine's Day.
ASYLUM seekers are being urged to become volunteers for the citizens advice team, in a bid to help their fellow would-be refugees.
HEALTH chiefs today admitted they hadn't considered applying for controversial "foundation" status -- because they were too busy planning their own merger.
TRADING Standards officers today revealed they had smashed what they believe to be the biggest house-based CD and DVD counterfeit racket in the country.
BLACKPOOL'S most famous hotel has been dubbed a 'retirement home' which 'smells of cabbage' by a London travel critic.
BLACKPOOL fan, Jack Blundell, remembers exactly where he was when Blackpool won the FA Cup, 50 years ago on Sunday.
HE STARTED his career selling Blackpool rock out of the back of a van -- but Albert Gubay built a business empire worth a remarkable £650 million.
YOUNGSTERS had to be kept away from playgroup on Tuesday after raiders attacked Shakerley Community Centre stealing equipment and toddler group cash.
A DISTURBED teenager threatened a man with a knife on the same day of her release from custody for a similar offence.
A LEIGH man received a shot of good luck when he scooped £50,000 on Littlewoods' Spot the Ball.
ATHERTON'S five star Prince's Trust Volunteers showcased their work at the end of a challenging 12 weeks programme.
TWO of three brothers who fought police have each been jailed for six months.
WHEN Astley girl Doris Parry told her family that she planned to marry her RAF sweetheart Jack Sexton after a few months of whirlwind courtship, she was warned that it would not last.
MYSTERY still surrounds the circumstances in which a Blackpool man ended up with a life-threatening head injury, detectives have admitted.
A SENIOR Tory today told one of his councillors to quit amid fears he would vote against him in a leadership fight.
PADIHAM and Clitheroe are neck-and-neck in the race for the North West Counties League Reserve Division title.
SOME weeks ago, Peter Doherty wondered in his column on this page, why nominations for independent candidates for the local election had not been received from any member of the multitude of groups that have been so critical of Labour's recent record in…
I SPOTTED an unusual, attractive willow cone hanging basket outside a house on the main road through to Hindley.
I'VE been asked if I know the whereabouts of a former Leigh singer -- as though I should!
TWO messages. The first, thanks to retired Leigh teacher and Tyldesley athletics coach and patriot John Howcroft for sending me a St George's Day card and second, get well soon to the Rev Terence Hargreaves-Stead, vicar of my old parish of St Paul's,…
I HAVE no inclination to go out these days. However I have been attracted by one film I'd love to see - the sing-a-long version of The Sound of Music.
A REPRIEVED village school is going public.
SOME people have no ethics.
A PENSIONER waiting to cross the road from Westleigh Lane Post Office tells me he was stunned to watch half a dozen off road bikers emerge from the 'red gates' and zoom past him towards Leigh -- all doing wheelies.
A SHOCKED Astley resident rang me to say she had spotted an enormous bird -- the size of a 35lb turkey -- up a tree between North Lane and Princes Avenue on Thursday evening.
IT'S great to learn that 11,000 animals, including many that were unwanted, abandoned or ill-treated, were found loving new NW homes last year by the RSPCA.
LABOUR lost five seats - four to the conservatives, and one to the LibDems in the Bury Council elections.
I WRITE after reading a letter in the Bury Times (April 22)about the difficulty one lady experienced in getting a high school place for her grandchild in Prestwich.
DAWN Robinson-Walsh, whose recent letter was headlined "PFI failure has caused a split", has clearly misunderstood recent reports in your paper on how Bury Council has approached the issue of funding much-needed improvements to the borough's high…
I HAVE read the latest letter from former councillor Julie Higson (April 11) and, ordinarily, I would let such things pass without comment. However, her recollections of her activities as a councillor are wildly exaggerated.
LITTLE Holly Smith could become Accrington Stanley's youngest fan tomorrow.
CHORLEY boss Mark Molyneaux has told his players 'let's do it for Jack' as the Magpies gear up for tomorrow's winner-takes-all play-off clash with Radcliffe Borough.
NO doubt most readers have like myself been bombarded by election pamphlets over the last few weeks.
ON Easter Sunday around 9.30pm my 24-year-old son was brutally and viciously attacked on the corner of Lyddersdale Avenue and Lakewood.
IN order that we may expand and help even more cats, the Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde Branch of Cats Protection is looking for cat lovers with time to spare who can help in a practical way.
READING the article (April 11) regarding Fishpool Infants and St Chad's schools being re-named St Luke's, I think the idea is ridiculous.
I CONTINUE to be disappointed -- indeed alarmed -- by the increasing numbers of people who do not bother to vote. The right to vote is extremely valuable and should not be ignored at election time. There are many reasons for this apathy.
I HAVE felt for some time that the NHS hierarchy has been doing their best to "bury" medical secretaries in a deep hole, and the current Agenda for Change is the manhole cover with which they will suffocate us once and for all.
THE letter from "Angry Grandmother" (Your Letters, April 22) regarding her Prestwich-based grandson being refused a place at Prestwich High School showed what utter policy confusion there is in Bury.
I LIVE in Ramsbottom and recently received a copy of Ramsbottom Rose -- a leaflet on behalf of a Labour candidate in yesterday's local elections -- which tells me that Labour in Bury are "delivering" for older people. Delivering what? They are closing…
MANY thanks for bringing an environmental issue to the front page of the Bury Times (April 18), concerning the destruction of the Site of Biological Importance (SBI) at Pilsworth.
LEIGH RMI are safe!
IT WAS a highly-successful weekend for EDS Leigh with comfortable victories over a poor Wigan side in the Premier League Knockout Trophy and Barrow in the first round of the National Knockout competition.
PET lovers are asked to step forward and help abandoned animals.
A LEIGH store has launched a Buy British campaign to support local farmers.
A LEIGH travel agent has helped the national award winning company triumph at the travel oscars.
ONE of Leigh's best known publicans has died at the age of 86.
NEWCHURCH WI are banking on bottle gifts to run a stall at Culcheth Community Day on May 5.
DARWEN firefighters are holding a special talk for children at the Sure Start nursery on Tuesday.
A LEIGH project has scooped a prize in the NW health challenge oscars.
FRIENDS of Sunnyhurst Wood are putting the finishing touches to the repair of an 80-year-old footbridge.
A CHARITY is appealing to local people to support its biggest annual fund raiser.
A SCHEME to encourage more people to eat more fruit and vegetables will be launched in the early summer once a project co-ordinator and project assistant has been appointed.
A BURNLEY company has been fined £500 for 'persistently' ignoring requests to comply with planning regulations.
WHEN Hollyoaks cheeky chappie Max Cunningham -- real-life actor Matt Littler -- decided to party, it had to be in his hometown.
A NEW A-Z of how to organise a community event safely and properly has been launched in Bury.
A MAJOR new campaign is being launched on Monday to try to stop people illegally dumping rubbish.
MORE than 50 guns were handed in to Bury police stations in the final week of April's national gun amnesty.
TWO men involved with counterfeit CDs have been convicted by Bury magistrates.
In August 1831, one of Britain's worst shipwrecks took the lives of 100 passengers within sight of the Welsh coast.
OLD soldiers and young cadets gathered in Bury to pay their respects to the bravery of eleven Lancashire Fusilier officers and 350 of their men who died on the beaches of Gallipoli in Turkey on April 25, 1915.
THE troubled Silentnight beds to furniture group has announced losses of £11.2 million for 2002 compared with a £12 million profit the previous year.
EMBATTLED Lancashire holiday group MyTravel today announced it was in advanced negotiations with its bankers over the refinancing of the company multi-million-pound debts.
A SURGE of generosity meant a leading charity shop had to close its doors to donations - because they were blocking a fire escape.
THE Brewsters Bear has more of a reason to be happy and entertain the kids as the Parsonage Way, Leigh, restaurant Brewsters have received a prestigious award for the most 'Parent Friendly Restaurant in the UK'.
A DESPERATE drug addict who withdrew large amounts of money from a cash machine minutes after burgling a house has been jailed for 21 months.
LEIGH MP Andy Burnham has accused United Utilities of breaking its pledges.
IT WILL be business as usual in Blackpool on Friday following Labour' s clear victory in the town' s first all-postal local election.
WHEN it comes to friendship Dot Ainsworth is double tops.
EURO MP Terry Wynn is urging Leigh people to support the bold Sports Village bid for Pennington.
THE Tories retook Hyndburn just 12 months after being ousted by Labour, with new leader Peter Britcliffe declaring: "It's my best birthday present yet!"
JUBILANT Tories tightened their grip on Ribble Valley Council at the expense of incoming borough mayor Frank Goss and former mayor Jenny Grimes.
HELP is at hand for older carers in the community.
IT was a good night for the Conservatives in the Chorley borough elections as they won two seats -- one from the Liberal Democrats, the other from Labour -- to take their total on the council to 18.
IT is almost a year since Rossendale Borough Council was named the worst local authority in the country after a disastrous Audit Commission report.
A VINTAGE bus will be making its way to Darwen after a 23-year spell in Malta as part of a bid to help rekindle town pride.
NINE out of ten families will be better off under the new tax credit system.
A 42-year-old motorcyclist was taken to hospital with back injuries after a collision.
GULF war hero Lee Foster is expected back home. The 19-years-old paratrooper struck down by a mystery virus just before Easter was this week back at his Dover base after recuperating in Cyprus.
STACKSTEADS councillor Michael McShea has been appointed president of Water Brass Band -- and admitted: "I can't even play."
THE Mayor of Rossendale is urging people in the valley to take part in his end-of-term charity triathlon next week.
AN animal charity is seeking the owner of an elderly whippet picked up in Gin Pit village.
LABOUR lost control of Pendle Council but was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign, according to ousted leader Azhar Ali.
COUNCIL leader Peter Smith gave his end of the year state of the borough address at the final council meeting of the year.
A TOWN hall "enforcer" has been appointed by Rossendale Council to compile a monthly list of householders who refuse to pay their bills.
CALLS for Iain Duncan Smith to resign today overshadowed the Conservative leader's solid showing in a crucial poll test.
