A BLACKBURN teacher and an Accrington-born Brigadier head the list of people in Lancashire receiving awards in theNew Year's Honours.

Brian Geoffrey Souter, of Blackburn, deputy headteacher at Southlands High School in Chorley, receives the MBE for services to education and Brigadier Alex Birtwistle becomes a military CBE.

Brig Birtwistle, who was born and brought up in Accrington before joining the army in 1951, was the straight-talking officer who masterminded the Army's involvement in the battle against foot and mouth in Cumbria.

He postponed his retirement, which was planned for April 2, after senior officers urged him to continue overseeing the Army's involvement in the country's first mass burial site, at Great Orton, near Carlisle.

Brig Birtwistle, 53, was commissioned in 1967. During his career, he also held the title of Colonel of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and another of his responsibilities was aide-de-camp to the Queen.

In May this year he caused a storm when he told a BBC documentary that there was evidence of unscrupulous farmers breaking strict movement bans in a bid to pick up generous compensation payments for slaughtered animals or hide them from the cull.

During three decades of service, Brig Birtwistle had tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Germany, Nigeria, and Cyprus, and was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours last year.

Also honoured are Dorothy Naylor, chief executive of the North West Tourist Board, who lives in Chorley who receives the OBE for services to tourism; Robert Michael Coverdale Shields, of Altrincham, Cheshire, Chief executive, North West Regional Development Agency made an OBE for services to regeneration.

Caryl Edward Agard, of Preston, Director, Progress Trust, receives an OBE For services to training; Anthony Depledge Development director, Arriva Passenger Services Limited made an OBE for services to public transport.

Mrs Susan Elizabeth Ion, Executive director, Technology and Operations, BNFL, from Leyland, gets an OBE for services to the nuclear industry; Terence Peter McLoughlin, Director of Government Affairs, BAe plc, of Amersham, Buckinghamshire receives an OBE for services to the aerospace industry and John Catterall, of Preston, made an MBE for services to the community, especially choral music, in Lancashire.