Archive

  • Schools set for internet link-up

    SCHOOLS could soon be linked across Blackburn and Darwen via the internet. Contracts will be awarded to a company to fit equipment in December using grant money plus £150,000 set aside by the borough council, and systems could be ready by March 1999.

  • Campaigners celebrate as Prescott calls inquiry

    DELIGHTED campaigners in Guide are celebrating after John Prescott announced an inquiry must be held into plans for a major commercial development in the area. The deputy prime minister's decision means that the controversial project will now be in limbo

  • 'Buck up' warning to train service

    LOCAL MPs have backed a top level warning to North West Trains that if they do not improve services they will lose their franchise. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has told the firm to buck up its ideas or have its right to run services in the region

  • Brassed off

    BURNLEY skipper Chris Brass was left to rue the one that got away as the Clarets conceded an injury-time equaliser to Wigan on Saturday. Brass was adjudged to have conceded a free-kick from which Wigan won the corner that yielded Pat McGibbon's last-ditch

  • Euro MP slams Labour selection tactics

    A LANCASHIRE Euro MP today accused Labour leaders of ignoring local party members. Michael Hindley, MEP for South Lancashire, said they were forcing centrally-selected candidates on voters at the next round of European elections. His attack on New Labour

  • Dahlin's red card spat?

    THERE were heroes and villains at Goodison on Saturday and it wasn't difficult to identify them. Stephane Henchoz was a Rovers hero for defying illness to turn in an excellent performance at the back but Martin Dahlin came into the opposite category.

  • Brass adds to injury worries

    BURNLEY captain Chris Brass was facing a check on a knee injury today as the casualy list at Turf Moor shows few signs of abating. Leading scorer Andy Payton also picked up a dead leg in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic and Glen Little broke a

  • Crash baby flies out of car window

    A ONE-YEAR-OLD baby girl was thrown through a car window into a busy main road and amazingly escaped with just cuts and bruises. Nafisa Ali bounced on the carriageway after the collision between a BMW driven by her uncle Syluk, 48 and a Peugeot in Bradford

  • Mersey misery

    Premier League: Everton 0 Blackburn Rovers 0 - Peter White's big match verdict "WAS it bad?" asked one Rovers fan on Saturday evening after he had wisely decided to trundle a trolley around Tesco and volunteer for some housework rather than travel to

  • TEN YEARS AGO: Firm in drug alert

    A MEDICAL firm was at the centre of a nationwide contamination alert. An urgent warning was issued by Government health officials after it was found that a batch of anti-diarrhoea medicine produced by Cupal Ltd, of Blackburn, could be dangerously contaminated

  • FIVE YEARS AGO: Woman bitten by ape

    A HOLIDAYMAKER's terrifying ordeal with one of Gibraltar's famous apes would not lead to changes in the information provided for tourists. Madge Moss, of Springthorpe Street, Darwen, was mauled and bitten by one of the animals while holidaying with her

  • ICE HOCKEY: Hawks turn up the heat

    Blackburn Hawks 13, Oxford Foxblades 2 ; Swindon Chill 5, Blackburn Hawks 4 RED hot Hawks turned the heat up to full blast last night, 24 hours afer catching a chill. Hawks hammered Oxford Foxblades at the Arena after losing out in a nine goal thriller

  • Lies are part of politics

    MUCH has been said concerning President Clinton's lying about his sexual misdemeanours. But, surely, lying has been part and parcel of politics for generations. Lies, half-truths and evasions come naturally. Our entry to the Common Market, now the European

  • No trust for Clinton

    I HAVE so far quietly observed the unravelling scandal of Bill Clinton's fire-fighting approach to the allegations made against him by Monica Lewinsky. I even took note of Fred Shawcross (Letters, September 23) and his xenophobic references to American

  • Brass on Clarets sick list

    BURNLEY captain Chris Brass was facing a check on a knee injury today as the casualy list at Turf Moor shows few signs of abating. Leading scorer Andy Payton also picked up a dead leg in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic and Glen Little broke a

  • Rovers striker crisis

    BLACKBURN Rovers flew to Lyon today minus all four senior strikers. Chris Sutton and Kevin Gallacher were joined on the injured list by Martin Dahlin who was ruled out with a calf injury. Davies is on the mend from a severe throat infection but is also

  • Musuem works site bid refused

    A TRANSPORT museum's plan for a storage and restoration building at Belthorn has been blocked by Hyndburn councillors. East Lancashire Municipal Transport Museum wanted a building to store and carry out restoration work to its collection of public service

  • Chance to sit down at last for diamond couple

    DANCING the day away has always been a favourite pastime of John and Lily Bickerstaffe. But for once the couple will sit down for a special meal with their family to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary. Lily, originally from Darwen, met John when

  • Mystery over dad-of-four kidnapping

    A FATHER-OF-FOUR went missing from Burnley for eight hours before being found battered and bleeding in a Nelson back street. Robert George Lowry, 29, has told detectives that the last thing he can remember is leaving Oliver's off-licence in Old Hall Street

  • Out-of-town stores 'damage' report welcomed

    RESEARCH claiming that out-of-town superstores can damage small towns has been welcomed by traders in Rawtenstall. The town's Chamber of Commerce is against plans to develop a new £30 million retail complex at Newhallhey. Councillors at the engineering

  • Striker crisis hits Hodgson

    BLACKBURN Rovers flew to Lyon today minus all four senior strikers. Chris Sutton and Kevin Gallacher were joined on the injured list by Martin Dahlin who was ruled out with a calf injury. Davies is on the mend from a severe throat infection but is also

  • Mac the knife

    Division Two: Burnley 1 Wigan Athletic 1 - Pete Oliver's big match verdict YOU can bet your life Pat McGibbon won't be on Brian Reid's Christmas card list this winter. New father Reid was just moments away from completing the perfect week when McGibbon

  • Man faces arson charge after residents flee fire

    A 24-year-old man was expected to appear in court today charged with arson, after a blaze which forced residents to flee their council flats and sent thick plumes of smoke billowing across Blackburn town centre. Police officers who were called to deal

  • Events in East Lancashire tomorrow (Tuesday, September 29th)

    Over 50's Coffee Afternoon at Mill Hill Community Centre, Blackburn, 1.30pm. Refreshments, tombola and raffle. Sequence Dancing with MC's Jack and Barbara, Westbury Gardens, Blackburn, 1.30pm-4pm. Blackburn Home Organists' Club meet St Stephen's Conservative

  • Watch out, Murdoch might be moving in! head jokes

    THE head teacher of a top grammar school has warned that education is becoming a "sad joke". Clitheroe Royal Grammar School head Stuart Holt said the school was achieving phenomenal exam results and was in danger of attracting a take-over bid from Rupert

  • Lost 'son' had it yankee doodle dandy!

    THE transatlantic traffic of ancestor hunters is usually all one-way, as Americans come to delve for their roots in the "old country." But when, at the age of 86, Accringtonian Jim Waddington boarded a plane for the first time in his life and flew across

  • Did Kohl suffer a Euro backlash?

    GERMANY's dumping of Helmut Kohl after 16 years in power in favour of the centre-Left may be seen as a move by its voters towards a Blair-style government, but Labour may see a warning in this switch and the Tories a ray of hope. For while economic muddle

  • Tony should not discount the dissenters

    IT SEEMS like old times -- the hard Left giving the Labour leadership earache and presenting an image of a party divided. But if that is how this year's party conference looks to have begun, with hardline leftwingers grabbing four of the six national

  • Gift was so enchanting

    WHILE house sitting at my daughter's and son-in-law's house in Blackburn, the phone rang and a voice said: "This is from the Enchanted Garden." I said: "Who?" and the man repeated the message. I put the phone down and thought it was someone having a joke

  • Mystery over dad-of-four kidnapping

    A FATHER-OF-FOUR went missing from Burnley for eight hours before being found battered and bleeding in a Nelson back street. Robert George Lowry, 29, has told detectives that the last thing he can remember is leaving Oliver's off-licence in Old Hall Street

  • Banned driver loses appeal against jail term

    A BANNED driver, jailed for using a car to visit his sick mother, must stay behind bars. Nigel Coulthurst, 35, jailed for four months by Burnley magistrates, was told by a judge the sentence was "perfectly correct". Judge Raymond Bennett, sitting with

  • Labour's 'partner' booster

    THE pioneering work of the Blackburn Partnership is set to be put on a national platform. The Partnership, together with major East Lancashire employer Whitbread, is hosting a joint reception at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool this week. Home

  • Crash baby flies out of car window

    A ONE-YEAR-OLD baby girl was thrown through a car window into a busy main road and amazingly escaped with just cuts and bruises. Nafisa Ali bounced on the carriageway after the collision between a BMW driven by her uncle Syluk, 48 and a Peugeot in Bradford