Morecambe's temporary ice rink is set to open next week. The synthetic mini-arena, in the car park next to The Platform on Marine Road Central, will be able to accommodate up to 75 people at a time and comes with a snow machine, music sound
BOOKS of condolence have been opened in Blackburn and Darwen town halls to show support for those affected by the Mumbai attacks. Council leader Colin Rigby said: "I was very shocked and saddened to hear what had happened in Mumbai. :They were
A 96-YEAR-OLD man is in a critical condition after the car he was driving crashed, police said. The man, from Darwen, was in a gold Citroen Saxo when it collided with a black Vauxhall Corsa at the traffic light junction leading from Bolton Road to
ROVERS Premier League trip to Old Trafford on February 21 will now kick off at 5.30pm after being chosen for broadcast on television.
JULIO Santa Cruz's 56th-minute opener was not enough to earn Rovers' reserves victory at Christie Park this evening. The Paraguayan, younger brother of striker Roque Santa Cruz, converted Doran's left wing cross to break the deadlock early
A BUS and coach manufacturer is on the lookout for a new boss after the resignation of its chief executive. Andrew Brian has been chief executive at Optare, Whitebirk, Blackburn, since August 2007 but has stepped down, saying personal reasons
COUNCIL chiefs are hoping to bring X Factor finalist Diana Vickers back to Blackburn despite her exit from the show. Plans for the 17-year-old to perform a homecoming concert in the town centre today as part of the programme were cancelled
AN EAST Lancashire man will row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in a gruelling world record attempt to raise money for charity. Gareth Wilson, 27, of Wythburn Close, Burnley, will set sail from Gran Canaria on New Year’s Eve in aid of Brain
The Police & Community Together (PACT) meeting for Helmshore residents will take place at Haslingden Tesco at 5.30pm on Friday 12th December.
Irene Farrimond of Sunnybank St. Haslingden has had her story “Three White Foxes” published. It tells of her trip to a remote part of Kenya taking part in a church funded orphan programme. It’s published by Trafford Publishing.
A GROUP of residents is requesting major road works near their homes in a bid to ‘save lives'. The Carr Road Residents Group, believe a one way system, extra traffic lights, puffin crossings, pelican crossings and a lollipop person, will make
COMMUNITY organisers in Rossendale are being urged to apply for cash to fund their events. The borough council has set up a grants scheme with £20,000 available to pay for community schemes. Leaders can apply for one-off payments of up to £750 for the
CHRIS Pettigrew has started work as a multi sports coach with Blackburn Rovers’ Community Trust - almost 14 years to the day since his dad gave up a prestigious position in Kenny Dalglish’s backroom team. Chris, a mad-keen Rovers supporter, recently
LAWYERS have decided that just two men will now go on trial for the murder of a former Burnley businessman in South Africa. No fewer than seven people have been in the frame for the robbery and murder of Fred Picton Turbervill, who was shot
BURNLEY MP Kitty Ussher has pledged to back staff at a tax office which has been closed by the Government. Around 70 people at the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office in Towneley House, Burnley, will be affected when it is merged with bases in Blackburn
The window of a car was smashed by an object thrown in Victoria Street, Nelson. Police said the object is believed to have been a snowball with a stone inside it. The offender was a boy, aged around 16 and 17, dressed in dark tracksuit bottoms and
A BURNLEY school has joined the small list of schools in Lancashire to achieve the prestigious ICT Mark status. It recognises schools using technology to improve school life, including pupil assessment, teaching, the development of staff, leadership
Snooker star Jimmy White played charity frames with patrons of Padiham Snooker Club to raise money for the Paul Hunter Foundation. Jimmy played another fans’ favourite, Alex Higgins, later on. For the first frame, Matt Ullah pledged £110 for his son
CHORLEY MP Lindsay Hoyle opened St George’s Church Christmas Fair helping raise funds for the church. Lindsay was invited to attend the fair, visit the stalls and speak to the volunteers involved in organising the event. Mr Hoyle said
Police in Chorley are investigating a burglary at a bookmakers, in which thieves used electric tools to steal £1,800 from a safe. The break-in happened at the William Hill branch in Harpers Lane sometime between 9.45pm on Friday (December 5
DANCE teacher Graham Vernon, from Samlesbury, gives his verdict on the twelfth episode of Strictly Come Dancing. Austin and Erin American Smooth Foxtrot: There was a strong confident feel to Austin this week. He showed fantastic control
MORE foster carers are needed in Lancashire from ethnic communities to look after children and young people from similar backgrounds. Perpetual Fostering said they urgently needed placements in friendly and supportive home environments. Perpetual’s
A COMPROMISE has been reached in the row over free bus travel for pensioners in Lancashire. Pendle Council had withdrawn from a county-wide agreement over the administration of the travel scheme, planning to keep the £400,000 surplus and spend it on
Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle has tabled a Commons Motion demanding energy companies reduce their prices. The price of oil – the main driver of wholesale gas prices and a major factor in the price of electricity – has now fallen by almost three-quarters
A MURDER suspect said he was "speechless" after being arrested for the killing of Khuram Mukhtar just seconds after jetting back to the UK. Print firm manager Ian Christopher Priddle, 46, was detained by detectives along with his girlfriend
A man has been jailed for life after being found guilty today of a frenzied knife attack on a schoolgirl as she walked through a Chorley park. Jessica Knight, then 14, was listening to her iPod when Frenchman Kristofer Beddar, 21, launched
A MAN has been left with a cracked jaw and fractured eye socket after being mugged. Police said that at 11.30pm on Saturday a 37-year-old man was walking home along St Philips Street, Blackburn when he was approached by three Asian men in a black hatchback
JUST before he retired as the manager at Castle Cement quarries in Clitheroe, I had several conversations with Keith Hall. Like most quarrymen he knew the earth and the need to conserve it. Quarries are fine and essential providing that they are landscaped
BESART Berisha is looking forward to returning to a Burnley side challenging for the play-offs after his loan spell at Rosenborg came to an end. Berisha scored twice on his Rosenborg debut against Molde in August and featured in the UEFA Cup but was
I got the dreaded lurgi off some Christians last Sunday. They said they couldn’t stay away for fear of missing something, and as it was one of those a caring, sharing, huggy fellowships, it was difficult to miss what was on offer. Being scrupulously
THOUSANDS of people around the world joined an East Lancashire group’s online prayer day for Madeleine McCann. Madeleine’s mother Kate McCann is thought to be one of the 20,000 Christians who joined the Accrington and Burnley-based prayer circle in a
Address: Union Road, Oswaldtwistle. Phone number: 01254 236 618. Lancashire Telegraph review by Caroline Dutton from December 8, 2008. IT'S good to see that the credit crunch hasn't hit every business in town. Midweek in Oswaldtwistle
LANCASHIRE'S finest food traditions are being given a bite-sized twist at a new Ramsbottom bar and kitchen. Classics such as black pudding, hotpot and potted shrimps will be served as tapas dishes at The First Chop, in Bolton Street. All food will
FROM Carry On to Corrie; Bad Girls to Babes in the Wood, actress Amanda Barrie's career has been varied to say the least. Now the popular actress — perhaps best known for her role as Alma Sedgewick in Coronation Street — is returning to her
A BURNLEY barber is offering a selection of Clarets cuts in honour of the team’s Carling Cup giant-killing run. Staff at Jazzman Grooves, which has shops in Bull Street and Burnley Road, have overhauled their list of specials to include several
EAST Lancashire’s only accident and emergency unit has been suffering from a shortage of doctors, it has been revealed. The A and E at the Royal Blackburn Hospital has been down to just 10 permanent staff doctors, instead of the 17 needed to
A teenager will help represent her school and country at a UN-style event in America. After winning a place to speak at the Global Young Leader’s Conference in Washington DC, Zoeyah Shaheen, 17, of Blackburn Road, Accrington, is on a mission to raise
Several aid charities are once again making their, by now traditional, Christmas pitch for donations to buy farmed animals for some of the world's poorest communities. At first sight, it’s an uplifting idea but the reality is that such animal gifts
COUNCILLORS are on Wednesday expected to approve a new merged primary school in Waterfoot. Staff and pupils at Waterfoot Primary have been operating across two sites since the school merged with nearby Cloughfold Primary more than a year ago
BANK customers were rewarded for their loyalty with a trip to watch Blackburn Rovers take on Liverpool. Sixteen customers with long-standing accounts at Barclays, in Darwen Street, were also given a mini-tour of the stadium and enjoyed a three-course
CHRIS Eagles is eagerly anticipating Burnley’s Carling Cup semi-final against holders Totten-ham Hotspur – the team he grew up supporting. The 23-year-old, who scored the decisive goal in the Clarets’ 3-2 win at Sheffield United on Saturday
RAIL lovers yesterday took a trip to Colne’s Boundary Mill Stores on a specially-chartered train. Enthusiasts from the Skipton to East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership (SELRAP) set up a train which took the picturesque route between Skipton and Colne
ROSSENDALE United have appointed Iain McLellan as assistant-manager to complete the new managerial team structure at Dark Lane. He joins Phil Eastwood, who was given the manager’s job recently after a short spell as caretaker-manager.
TWO East Lancashire MPs have joined almost 10,000 people in Lancashire demanding a Government plan to protect children from smoke. Postcards, designed by pressure group Smokefree North West, have been sent to the Department for Health calling for a long-term
PAUL Ince has vowed to bounce back from the barrage of criticism aimed at him in recent weeks – insisting he still has faith in himself as a top-flight manager. The Rovers boss has been tipped by many to be the next Premier League managerial
ONLY one East Lancashire competitor was successful in the adult classes of the Luther Greenwood Memorial Festival at Colne. Singer Sheila Stocks, from Rossendale, won the British composer class singing ‘Pleading’ by Elgar, and gained two runner-up
CORONATION Street star Sam Aston was the guest at a school’s Christmas fair. Bacup-born Sam, 14, got into the festive spirit with pupils from St John’s Stonefold Primary School, in Rising Bridge Road, Rising Bridge, near Haslingden. The money raised
Police have renewed an appeal for witnesses following a terrifying armed robbery at a Haslingden betting shop last month. Female staff at Ladbrokes, in Manchester Road, were threatened by three masked men armed with bars or sticks at around 9.10pm
PROUD Burnley manager Owen Coyle described his side’s win at Sheffield United as arguably his side’s best result and performance of the season. It was a true triumph over adversity for the Clarets, for whom, added to the absence of suspended
BURNLEY-born MP Shahid Malik has demanded an urgent inquiry into social services’ role in the Shannon Matthews case. Mr Malik, who represents Dewsbury, has said a review is needed to learn lessons but has insisted he is not looking for scapegoats. Shannon
A RURAL training firm is looking to achieve government accreditation that will allow it to provide free training to companies worried about costs in the economic downturn. Northern Rural Partnership (NRP) is based at Clitheroe Auction Mart from where
UNDERAGE drinkers on a town’s streets face on-the-spot fines of £40 in a Christmas crackdown. Rishton’s Neighbourhood Policing Team will be providing a strong Christmas presence throughout the area and say they will be taking a tough stance towards alcohol
A BLACKBURN children’s champion is set to visit Buckingham Palace to receive her OBE. Gladys Rhodes, deputy director of children’s services at Blackburn with Darwen Council, travels to the capital on December 18 with her partner Stephen and
POLICE have renewed an appeal for information over a man who has been missing for more than three weeks. Howard Grimshaw, 34, was last seen at his home in Oak Street, Colne at around 9.15am on November 13. Police are concerned because he had been
Concerning the whale in Blackburn (LT letters, December 4), I’m originally from Blackpool and I remember a whale being washed up on the beach about 40 years or so ago. Could it be the same one transported to Blackburn for some reason? So
A £4.5MILLION transport hub has opened in Nelson. The new interchange, off Railway Street and Broadway, connects the town’s bus and railway stations and offers advice to walkers and cyclists. Council chiefs hope the new facility will bring more people
Firefighters from Nelson were called out after a bedroom fire yesterday. Crews attended the scene, in Napier Street, at around 1.30pm and took an hour to get the blaze under control. The contents of the room were destroyed and it was left badly
In answer to Mr Chris Eggleston (LT, November 12), his letter has much to be agreed with. Yes, we British, or should I say English, are at war. Would we have celebrated our heroes if after one month, as Mr GW Bush said it had been ‘mission accomplished
The EU Court of Auditors (ECA) has for yet another year severely criticised the 'legality and regularity' of the EU’s accounts. The ECA's latest report into the EU's 2007 spending marks the 14th year in a row that auditors have revealed major failures
It is with some distress that I read of dissatisfaction with the hospitals of this region. I read of dirty wards and patients pushed to one side and ignored. I will, therefore, write of my personal experiences over the last six weeks. I will not go into
Tickets for Burnley’s FA Cup third-round trip to QPR will go on sale at Turf Moor on Wednesday. The Clarets travel to Loftus Road on Saturday, January 3, at 3pm after winning there in the Championship last month thanks to a goal from Alan Mahon.
Lancashire will be joined by five more English county sides at a pre-seson tournament in the United Arab Emirates in March. Having been runners up in the 2008 event, Lancashire will compete in the Emirates Airline Pro Arch Trophy in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah
ACCRINGTON Stanley’s John Coleman may be facing FA sanctions after being sent from the touchline last weekend, but he feels he is beginning to mellow as a manager. Coleman and assistant manager Jimmy Bell have often cut tense figures on the touchline
We gasp when we think of some of the landowners of England who can trace their ancestors back to Norman times. The badger, however, can trace its origins in Britain back to just after the last of several Ice Ages, around 8,000 years ago. Long before
WELL the big adventure is over, the “journey” is complete. Go on, admit it, whether you were a fan or not, Diana’s exit from the X Factor can’t have failed to raise a spark of emotion in even the most flint-hearted cynics. As she and the Quigglet
CLITHEROE travel to Curzon Ashton in UniBond First Division North tonight looking for their first win in seven away games after Saturday’s defeat at Wakefield. After a low tempo start to the game, Clitheroe took the lead in Yorkshire when Carl
DIANA Vickers may have been voted out of X Factor but she is sure to have a bright future ahead of her. For the past three months, people in East Lancashire have supported the 17-year-old student as she progressed through the hit ITV show. We have held
Blackburn Rovers’ reserve team will aim to follow up last week’s win at Liverpool when they host Wigan at Morecambe’s Christie Park tonight at 7pm.
Rossendale’s fixture against Lancaster City tomorrow has been called off because of the Dolly Blues' commitments in the Lancashire FA Co-Op Trophy.
A Darwen fundraiser has been made an honorary fellow of Cancer Research UK. Marion Walsh, from the charity’s Darwen local committee, picked up the award at a conference in Liverpool hosted by Cancer Research UK fundraising staff and researchers. An
SHOPPING for a birthday present for one of my daughter’s friends, she suddenly homed in on the "perfect" gift – a stress ball. "Don’t be ridiculous," I said, "She’s only 12, not a company executive." She proceeded to tell me how her friend, in common
CHRIS Eagles is rumoured to be on the wanted list of Premier League strugglers West Bromwich Albion, but the Burnley midfielder insists: “I just love playing for the club at the moment.” Eagles’ fifth goal of the season secured an important
BLACKBURN Rovers have not yet given up on under-fire boss Paul Ince as another weekend to forget saw them remain deep in the relegation mire. Contrary to a frenzy of national media speculation over the weekend, the Lancashire Telegraph can
GO ON then. Tell me something about Darwen’s new neighbourhood board. Yes, it’s a bit like a town council. And some councillors are on it. And, er, they’ve got money to spend. Er. Um. But who actually appointed the members? How many of them are
THE best of the Red Rose county was on display at the Lancashire Telegraph’s “Taste of Lancashire “ exhibition at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-le-Moors. Following on from Lancashire Day last week, businesses from throughout the county manned more
I CANNOT believe the issue of race has entered the the debate surrounding Paul Ince's tenure at Blackburn Rovers. No matter what you think about Ince and if he should keep his job at Ewood, why has the colour of Ince's skin been brought into
A 13-year-old boy who was seriously injured when he was struck by a car in Oswaldtwistle on November 28 is making “good progress”, police have revealed. Corey Taylor was been transferred to a normal ward at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
BOGUS workmen have been operating in Burnley, preying on vulnerable people, police said. Officers are urging residents to be on their guard against the conmen after several incidents in the Lowerhouse area. The warning follows complaints from elderly
Chorley were frustrated by icy weather which caused the postponement of their home league match with Lancaster City. Instead they will be hoping to build on their recent big win at Salford when they visit Curzon Ashton on Saturday. Magpies manager
A COUNCIL’S fostering service has been slammed by an official report for putting vulnerable children at risk. A watchdog said Blackburn with Darwen Council didn’t always carry out criminal record checks on carers and branded the fostering department
A BOY aged six was found among a group of alcohol-drinking youths during an undercover police crackdown on teenage yobs. The youngster was discovered with his older cousin by police and council officers carrying out an operation aimed at tackling
DIANA Vickers made an emotional exit from the X Factor on Saturday night - but told the Lancashire Telegraph: “It was my time to go.” The 17-year-old, who grew up in Pleasington, Blackburn, was voted out in the ITV1 show’s semi-final in emotional
AN 81-year-old man has been warned he could be jailed after being found guilty of inciting a teenager to engage in sexual activity. Blackburn magistrates heard that Alexander Heward approached the 14-year-old boy in the town’s Morrisons and
VITAL cash bailouts to rescue East Lancashire's hospitals from a beds crisis will not be available if they are granted foundation status. East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has already received a £900,000 handout, and is set to receive more
