THINK of East Lancashire and ask yourself what you think is important for its future.

The East Lancashire Partnership has been doing just this. Its vision for the future of East Lancashire has been featured in an INSIGHT Special feature in this week's Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

The vision is being developed to change the negative things that affect some sections of our population, including unfit housing, low wages, poor health and life expectancy and low educational achievement.

The East Lancashire Partnership is made up of all the key organisations in East Lancashire, including local authorities, the health authority, colleges, the voluntary sector, ELTEC and the chamber of commerce.

As a first step, the partnership has produced 'The Condition of East Lancashire Today' which describes what it is like for many people living in East Lancashire.

Now we want to know what you think East Lancashire is like.

The Partnership has produced the following bullet points based on the findings of its research.

People here are more likely to earn less money than people living in other parts of the country, average earnings are nearly 23 per cent less than the UK average.

There are more unfit houses, most of which are privately owned.

Life expectancy in East Lancashire is shorter, 20 per cent more people die each year at a younger age than the national average. Levels of long term illness which prevent normal life are high and 60 per cent more people are off work sick than the national average.

People in East Lancashire have fewer qualifications, 33 per cent of people in work have no formal qualification. More than double the national average of the workforce work in the manufacturing sector and car ownership in the area is below the national average.

Many live within densely populated older areas where unemployment and poverty are high. Poverty, unfit housing poor health and low educational attainment are generally concentrated in the urban central wards.

This is only part of the picture of East Lancashire: the Partnership's document deliberately looks more at the problems it faces rather than the positive aspects.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.