THOUSANDS of jobs in the Lancashire textile industry have been lost in the last two decades.

East Lancashire has been particularly badly hit with dozens of companies, some of them household names, going to the wall.

So the £10million Government aid plan to give the struggling sector a boost is most welcome news.

The funding was announced in response to a report by the Textile and Clothing Strategy and the emphasis will be on "smart fabrics" which could give many textile companies a new lease of life.

Although £10million spread across the county's textile industry is not a vast amount of investment, it is nevertheless welcome.

In the past the industry had precious little help from successive governments as it struggled against crippling cheap imports.

But Peter Hargreaves, managing director of Oswaldtwistle-based Hilden Manufacturing was absolutely right when he warned colleagues not to rely too heavily on Government help.

He rightly pointed out that some textile firms had gone to the wall waiting for assistance.

But if there is Government money available to assist the long suffering textile industry, let's have some of it here in East Lancashire.