SAMARITANS in Blackburn have taken to the road to spread their message to people all over town. The Blackburn branch of the organisation, which offers help to people who are distressed or in despair, has had its message painted on to a Blackburn Transport
DEVELOPERS trying to attract retailers to Blackburn's newest shopping park say they are no nearer filling empty units at the site. Big name shops such as Blockbuster Video and Wickes Home Improvements have already moved on to the Towns Moor development
BEDS and furniture giant Silentnight today reported a record first half performance, with profits up to £21.3 million. The Barnoldswick-based company, which employs 4,000 people, announced a 16 per cent increase in pre-tax trading profits to £8.1 million
TWO pupils at Blackburn's Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School made all the right moves when they represented Lancashire in a national chess championship at Staffordshire University. Adam Dickinson, 16, of Clayton-le-Moors, and James Clark, 16, of Burnley
A 39-YEAR-old man who is accused of continually sexually abusing two girls told police he had not indecently assaulted them, a court heard. Burnley Crown Court heard how Ian Middleton allegedly committed sex acts with his two alleged victims, pushed one
HEAVY rains have uncovered the remains of a young man buried 150 years ago in a Rossendale churchyard. When Louise and Gareth Cooper built their house next door to St Mary and All Saints Church in Goodshaw Lane, Goodshaw, they always knew something might
A MAJOR refurbishment to convert a 17th century barn into an art gallery and exhibition hall is a credit to East Lancashire says the president of the Ancient Monuments Society. Dame Jennifer Jenkins, who is also chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund building
A ROVERS fan who has supported the club for more than 80 years celebrated his 94th birthday by meeting two of the club's all time greats. Edward Flatt, of Hereford Road, Blackburn, met Ronnie Clayton and Bryan Douglas in the directors' lounge at Ewood
BRIAN Kidd has vowed not to sacrifice his footballing principles in a bid to find a quick-fix solution to Blackburn Rovers' problems. The Ewood chief was left frustrated as Rovers six-game unbeaten run came shuddering to a halt at struggling Swindon last
FRUSTRATED Burnley boss Stan Ternent has launched a broadside at the structure of reserve team football as he tries to keep all his players primed for action. The Clarets reserves will play only their fifth game of the season in the Pontins League Premier
POLICE are looking for a mystery man who pulled a pensioner from a burning car and may have saved his life. Joseph Heaton, 81, is recovering in hospital after his car set on fire at an East Lancashire beauty spot. The pensioner, of St James' Road, Blackburn
A HEALTH boss today said the decision not to name the food outlet at the centre of E.coli food poisoning inquiries had been proved right, following an extensive investigation. Dr Roberta Marshall, East Lancashire Health Authority's consultant in communicable
A YOUNG E.coli food poisoning victim is set to take legal action against an East Lancashire food outlet where she ate a meal - despite a decision by environmental health chiefs not to prosecute. Graduate Stephanie Hawke, 21, of Padiham, spent a week in
AN East Lancashire nursery which has looked after the children of Blackburn Rovers soccer stars has closed amid allegations by the owner of financial irregularities involving its accounts. Elaine Eastham told more than a dozen staff at Elaine's Child
NORMAL ambulance services were on the brink of collapse after officers voted by 3-1 to follow their colleagues into industrial action. The officers, who manned emergency control centres and run the ambulance stations, rejected a 6.5 per cent pay offer
THE Lancashire Evening Telegraph's nature expert and Grimewatch campaign co-ordinator Ron Freethy today collects a £48,000 prize in Australia - for the world's best river clean-up initiative and one that improves our environment here in East Lancashire
THOSE whose memories stretch to the era before instant communication by mobile phone, computers and satellite link will recall the once-familiar scenes on grainy, black and white newsreel film of messengers, some in top hats, spilling down the steps of
THE letter sent to Blackburn Labour leader Councillor Malcolm Doherty, on behalf of local Liberal Democrats, which voices our disquiet at the recent conduct of some of his colleagues and the Labour group's apparent disregard for addressing the issues
A THIEF who went on a raiding spree at Burnley's Thompson Centre has been given until next January to prove he should not go to jail. Stuart Jack Andrews, 30, took £800 from one victim and told police he had handed the spoils to two other people to pay
FRUSTRATED Burnley boss Stan Ternent has launched a broadside at the structure of reserve team football as he tries to keep all his players primed for action. The Clarets reserves will play only their fifth game of the season in the Pontins League Premier
POLICE have issued a road safety warning to motorists on a road where at least a dozen cars have crashed into a field in less than six months. It follows the latest accident in which a woman narrowly escaped injury when her Vauxhall Astra left Stanhill
A NURSE "went along for the ride" when a friend started working a dummy coin fraud at arcades in Accrington and Blackburn. Linda Mary Fitzgerald, 41, was with Peter Lee Fenton when he was caught and 300 fake £1 coins were found in the back of her car.
A TOP-level meeting could decide the fate of Accrington's part-time fire crew next week. Hyndburn MP Greg Pope is launching a last-ditch bid to save the town's retained crew and engine. He will meet recently-installed Home Office minister Mike O'Brien
The first 'made in Lancashire' components for a new aircraft have been delivered. British Aerospace's Samlesbury site is manufacturing parts for the Airbus A340-600. And the first consignment of components, including engine mounting pylon brackets, has
YOUNG offenders working with disabled visitors to a Pendle activity centre will be presented with certificates for literacy, food hygiene and first aid during a ceremony at the centre on Friday. Coldwell Activity Centre in the moors above Nelson is a
A LONG-SERVING county councillor has been found dead at his Nelson home two days after returning from holiday in Tunisia where he had been treated in hospital following a fall. Police forced their way into the Nelson flat of Joe French at the Imperial
THEY'RE back! - the daft do-gooders. Just as we were all supposing that a stop had been put to the ridiculous and offensive social-worker idiocy of treating criminals with safaris and swimming-with-dolphins therapy that only made them laugh up their sleeves
The opinions of John Blunt are not necessarily those of this newspaper GIVEN that graphic sex education in school was the stimulus for his behaviour, according to the teenage father of the child of the 12-year-old mother whose pregnancy led Tony Blair
A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build an extension on to a Darwen mill is going ahead - despite councillors turning the project down. Bosses at Chapman Envelopes were given permission to extend the New Waterside Paper Mill, at Eccleshill, in 1994. But the granting
AN East Lancashire nursery which has looked after the children of Blackburn Rovers soccer stars has closed amid allegations by the owner of financial irregularities involving its accounts. Elaine Eastham told more than a dozen staff at Elaine's Child
POLICE are becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of a missing pensioner. William Smellie, 73, of Neath Close, Blackburn, has not been been seen by his family for two weeks. Police believe he headed for the Brindle area and could be sleeping rough
A PLAQUE to commemorate the visit of Winston Churchill to an East Lancashire pub 99 years ago has been unveiled. A young Churchill, then a war correspondent, stayed at The Commercial Hotel, Haslingden, while visiting the town to open the Volunteer's Bazaar
THE brakes have been put on a bid to allow teenagers to drive taxis in Pendle. Worried councillors refused a proposal to grant taxi driver's licences to people who have held a full licence for two years which would have allowed 19-year-olds behind the
RARE and antique books belonging to a former East Lancashire schoolboy who went on to become an expert on the Middle East are expected to fetch more than £500,000 after his death. Dr Mike Burrell, who was raised and educated in Blackburn, died from cancer
DANNY Megarity made a chilling statement of intent after he had apparently swallowed 210 diazepam tablets following a row with his mother, a court heard. He sat on the settee at her home and said: "I am going to sit here and let you watch me die and then
FORMER Rovers striker Jimmy Quinn is still backing his old club for promotion this season - despite masterminding Swindon's shock win last night. And the former Northern Ireland international believes his own side could be on the up following their 2-
EAST Lancashire is full of Nutters! A survey of surnames has revealed that the area has more people bearing the name than anywhere else in Britain. The study, by global information company Experian, looked at more than 30,000 surnames throughout the British
FILAN: Coped well in difficult conditions but maybe should have cut out the cross for the opener...6 GRAYSON: Couldn't do much about the own goal but looked sound defensively...6 DAVIDSON: Looked good going forward and put in some telling crosses...7
LANCASHIRE Evening Telegraph nature expert Ron Freethy was on top of the world today after picking up top prize for the World's Best River Clean Up Initiative. Ron, of Roughlee, in Pendle, travelled to Australia on behalf of the Mersey Basin Campaign
Division One: Swindon Town 2 Blackburn Rovers 1 - Peter White's verdict THE last time goalkeeper Jimmy Glass pulled on a first team shirt he won national acclaim with a last-gasp winner to keep Carlisle in the Football League. So when Rovers boss Brian
AN 88-year-old woman died today after falling 20ft from Blackburn town centre rooftop car park in Brown Street. The widow, of Lamlash Road, Blackburn, has not been named by police. She was seen getting out of a taxi and walking up stairs close to the
Blackburn Artists' Society meet St Gabriel's Church Hall, Brownhill Drive, Blackburn, 7pm. Evening of members' slides. Advice and Information Session with Blackburn Citizens Advice Bureau, Roman Road Community Centre, Blackburn, 10am-noon. Sale of Goods
THE new season of Clitheroe Concert Society starts on October 13 with a recital by international young pianist Florian Uhlig. Concerts will take place in the lecture theatre of Clitheroe Royal Grammar School Sixth Form Centre, York Street. The season
SORDID hypnotism shows which trick volunteers into showing off their private parts were taking place across East Lancashire, it was revealed. The dirty displays were in front of packed crowds in pubs and clubs. The shock revelations were made by Blackburn
I DON'T want to be pedantic, but your story (LET, September 10) on the girl falling from a horsebox on the M62 was inaccurate. Having grown up in Lancashire but now living in Yorkshire, I must take you to task - I wasn't aware I live in a county that
SO Blackburn's planners are at it again - we might see the closure of Church Street in the near future (LET, September 17). Don't they realise that, in the past, they have caused enough chaos in and around the town with their hare-brained planning? Church
JOHN Blunt has never been slow to criticise British farmers for having their snouts in the 'euro trough' before ordering the latest Range Rover, has he? British farming is currently faced with the worst crisis in living memory, but his silence is deafening
I WAS totally amazed by your report and editorial concerning the lowering of speed limits on housing estates (LET, September 15) to protect the "innocent little children and stop the carnage of their precious little lives" (my words) on our roads. This
BURNLEY Health Trust received 73 written complaints from patients in the three months to June 30 and concluded dealing with 29 of them within four weeks. The highest number of complaints (22) related total aspects of clinical treatment, with dissatisfaction
FIREFIGHTERS are warning children they are risking their lives by clinging on to the back of fire engines. Last night a gang of children aged between seven and 10 tried to jump on to the engine as it left a rubbish fire on Belford Street, Stoneyholme,
TWO "sneak-in" burglaries at the houses of elderly people in Belvedere Road, Burnley, are being linked by police. Two men walked into the bungalows through unlocked doors at about 3.30pm, yesterday, and stole £105 cash and wallets. The first man was described
A BURGLAR who targeted four Burnley market stalls was later 'dropped in it' by his solicitor, after he was stopped for driving offences, a court heard. Lawyer Mark Williams 'owned up' at Burnley magistrates when the story of how Paul Robert Bradshaw,
VOLUNTEERS for East Lancashire Deaf Society's Bridging the Gap Project will attend an evening of awards at Accrington Town Hall on Friday to thank them for their hard work. The Bridging the Gap Project aims to diminish the isolation felt by deaf and hard
RESIDENTS in Accrington have drawn up an action plan to improve their neighbourhood, including turning waste land into playing fields. The Spring Hill Tenants and Residents Association (STARA), together with Hyndburn Council, has drawn up an improvement
A FAMILY was today looking for somewhere to live after they were forced to flee a fire at their home in Clayton-le-Moors. Carol and Ian Briercliffe and a 16-year-old boy were downstairs at their council home in Lancaster Drive when the fire started. Firefighters
BRIAN Kidd has vowed not to sacrifice his footballing principles in a bid to find a quick-fix solution to Blackburn Rovers' problems. The Ewood chief was left frustrated as Rovers six-game unbeaten run came shuddering to a halt at struggling Swindon last
Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy A COUPLE of weeks ago I visited Marton Mere near Blackpool. From there I went off to Lytham St Annes where I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon birdwatching at the Ribble Discovery Centre at Fairhaven Lake. This is open daily
BUSINESSES in East Lancashire are urged to help raise cash for charity by collecting empty toner and inkjet cartridges. The East Lancashire Deaf Society is trying to raise £3.5 million to renovate King's Court in King Street, Blackburn, to house a cafe
THERE is now just a fortnight left to enter for the final quarter of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph East Lancashire Business Awards. The awards build on the success of previous years but this year we have introduced a quarterly award scheme in addition
COUNTY highways bosses have refused to even discuss proposals by Nelson traders to provide extra short-stay car parking in the town centre. Nelson Town Centre Forum, representing local shopkeepers, suggested the disabled parking area in Manchester Road
JUST one weak cheer, I think, for the government's plans to curb the plague of junkie crime by making anyone arrested for a criminal offence undergo a drug test and for those found to be on hard drugs like heroin and cocaine to be automatically refused
THERE is, of course, great irony in Tony Blair being asked by the top-performing London Oratory School, to which he sent his children in preference to their local comprehensive, to contribute £45 a month to their education there. This occurred because
A LONG-SERVING county councillor has been found dead at his Nelson home two days after returning from holiday in Tunisia where he had been treated in hospital following a fall. Police forced their way into the Nelson flat of Joe French at the Imperial
A DEPARTMENT store chain has announced record profit increases of more than 30 per cent for the last six months. TJ Hughes, which has 26 stores including the Blackburn town centre site, said profits had increased by 32.8 per cent to £2.01 million between
