A FORMER smoker who was struck down by lung cancer has started his ground-breaking legal action against two tobacco companies. John Hodgson, of Whinney Lane, Mellor, is blaming tobacco giants Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher Ltd for his illness. The 54-year-old
Rovers 4 Wednesday 1 IT seems like years but it's only six months ago, virtually to the day, that I stood in the Hillsborough Press room listening to two managers clearly affected by the pressures of life at the top - or, some might say, the bottom, writes
CARING cops have left Lancashire for a mercy mission to Romania. Thirteen Lancashire Constabulary volunteers will deliver aid to orphanages and hospitals in the Hateg region. The annual visits started after officers saw the plight of Romanian people on
THE Princess Royal was granted a 'quickie' unconditional divorce to end her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips. The special procedure divorce was first in a list of 30 cases being with dealt with in Court Three of Somerset House, London. Rescue workers
PETER Swan could yet make a surprise return for Burnley, after fears that his season was over with Achilles tendon problems, writes PETER WHITE. Adrian Heath takes his team to relegated Notts County on Saturday, with only a mathematical hope of climbing
MIKE Atherton today set out on his busiest ever summer pledging to give everything to Lancashire's championship bid, reports Andy Wilson. As well as leading England in an Ashes series, Atherton faces the extra pressures of a benefit year in his tenth
SKILLED workers, business and tradesmen are invited to share their talents by becoming involved in the LETS scheme. The Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn branch of the Local Exchange Trading System was set up last year and allows people to pay for services
POLICE who terrorised a young family when they stormed a house in search for drugs today admitted they got the WRONG address. Furious father Derek Green said he was body-searched by officers while his four-year-old son Liam, who suffers from asthma, "
TINY battler Shannon Ryan has been given a two year all-clear by her heart specialist. Her thrilled parents, Dave and Mandy Ryan, of Margaret Street, Oswaldtwistle, are over the moon following an appointment with the consultant from Alder Hey Children's
NORTH West Water's mobile visitor centre will be in Burnley for the town's traditional May Day festival on May 5. "The Hidden World Of Water" will be the theme for the show, featuring displays about the mains network and the work being undertaken to improve
A PROPOSAL to bulldoze a block of sheltered flats and rehouse its elderly residents is to go ahead. Anchor Trust is to submit plans for the re-building of Pembroke Court, their retirement scheme in George Street, Darwen. Steve Wood, Anchor's regional
SEVEN schools in East Lancashire have become the first in the county to achieve accredited status for the National Record of Achievement scheme. The schools had to pass a rigorous three-day visit by trained assessors who inspect documentation and talk
A SEAL of approval has been bestowed on Brunshaw Primary school, Burnley, by Ofsted inspectors. They describe the 385-pupil primary as an improving school with many strengths, where teachers and support staff work as a team in their commitment to help
AFTER polluting our own planet we are now venturing further afield. Since the dawn of creation, space has remained unpolluted - that is, until 40 years ago. Now, there is all kinds of junk out there, discarded by humans. This includes space probes which
A GRIEF-STRICKEN family is trying to come to terms with a second tragic death in two months. Robert Craven died from a suspected heart attack, only two months after his younger son Justin died from a drug overdose. The double tragedy has devastated a
INDEPENDENT television company Barraclough Carey North is currently making a new series of the travel and leisure programme 'Out & About' which will be broadcast on BBB2 from May. We're looking for people who have a favourite place in the North West
A CEMENT works could face legal action after figures revealed kilns burning the controversial Cemfuel exceeded emission limits for dust and sulphur dioxide. Statistics submitted to the Environment Agency by Clitheroe's Castle Cement show that two kilns
SCHOOLKIDS are crestfallen after thieves stole their hard-earned computer on the day it was delivered. Pupils at Mount Carmel RC High, Accrington, spent weeks saving the 3,500 Asda vouchers to get the Viglen computer and monitor. They even helped out
A MAJOR row erupted over the reasons why pregnant patients were having to stand in corridors at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, waiting to see a consultant. Junior Health Minister Mrs Edwina Currie clashed with Blackburn MP Jack Straw over the causes
THOUSANDS of British sheep have recently been illegally shipped to France for the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Adha. They were smuggled to sacrificial sites around France and kept in makeshift pens ready for ritual slaughter. This contravenes European standards
A BLIP or a trend? Certainly, the opinion poll finding today, showing Labour's steady and commanding lead crashing to five per cent, brings a refreshing touch of suspense to a largely-boring election campaign. But can it be trusted? We think not. For,
THE five months of little baby Levi Rose's life ended horribly and brutally from head injuries that suggested that he was literally shaken to death. His parents, teenage mother Kelly Catlow and her 20-year-old boyfriend Christopher Rose, now stand convicted
JACK Walker did NOT order Tony Parkes to restore Graeme Le Saux to Blackburn Rovers' side after the caretaker-manager had axed the England left back, writes PETER WHITE. And Ewood chairman Robert Coar today described a speculative story to that effect
RECENTLY, I travelled by train on the scenic Furness line which runs from Lancaster to Barrow via Morecambe Bay. Having travelled the line many times before, the high point is always crossing the imposing viaduct which spans the Kent estuary, with lovely
CARELESS car boot sale enthusiasts could be creating a potentially lethal traffic hazard with illegal parking every week in the Ribble Valley, claims a concerned motorist. Cecil Hargreaves believes the Pimlico Link Road could become a death-trap as week
PENDLE Hill is always beautiful, even when there is mist shrouding its summit. It is, however, at its best on a bright summer's day when it is the perfect hunting ground for the "twitcher" - the keen birdwatcher. I set off around the foothills of Pendle
AS a regular walker along the banks of the Leeds/Liver pool Canal in Rishton, between the High Street and Cut Lane bridge, I have noticed over the past few months how much rubbish is floating in the water. There are many pallets, large canisters, dustbins
IN an obituary for Thomas Hargreaves, the former Blackburn Rovers' centre-forward (LET, April 1), it was wrongly stated that he played in the team which won the old Second Division championship in 1938-39. Jack Weddle, who later became head trainer at
LESSONS can be learned from the tragic death of battered baby Levi Rose, says the director of public health for East Lancashire. But a formal multi-agency inquiry already carried out did not show any serious omission or departures from procedures by any
Accrington Stanley 0 Southport 3 IN a game of two gambles for the ATS Trophy at Deepdale, Southport's paid off handsomely and Accrington's didn't, writes BRIAN DOOGAN. Stanley keeper Steve Berryman, who passed a late fitness test, was culpable for the
