NOXIOUS racists are suspected of trying to stir up trouble over the plan to turn the former Park Lee Hospital in Blackburn into an Islamic school.
But though the anonymous leaflets they distributed led to nearby householders turning up at a public meeting that was not, as they said, about the plan, but simply for residents of a neighbouring area, it is encouraging to see the upshot - a dismal failure of the plot to create racial divisions.
The residents affected, it turned out, were not a bit bothered about the hospital becoming an Islamic school, but had only understandable concerns about such things as parking and noise and not being told what was happening.
To us, this is a welcome demonstration of what we know is the case in East Lancashire - that its people are revolted by racism and have no time for racists because our community, for all its different races, creeds and cultures, lives happily together.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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