Carnival swear word apology

A joke about car sales contained in the offical programme for tomorrow's Accrington Carnival reads: "One careful owner - but the other 25 were *******s."

The event is sponsored and backed by Hyndburn Council, and the leaders of the council's Labour and Conservative groups expressed surprise at the strong language.

Organisers Accrington Lions originally refused to apologise for the error, saying they felt there was "not a problem".

But they have since backed down and offered an apology for the mistake.

Lions president Brian Spedding said: "As a charity group we would not like to offend anyone and if we did then we apologise.

"The page was left in open-minded, we were quite aware it was in. We didn't think it would cause offence, but if it has, we're sorry." The family day out will see children from Hyndburn schools and youth groups involved with carnival floats, as well as majorette troups and youth bands which will perform on the day.

Coun Jim Dickinson, acting leader of Hyndburn Council, said: "The carnival is a family fun day and this is not the most appropriate language. It is unfortunate because the carnival is a tremendous fundraising event for charity." Coun Ken Curtis, leader of the council's Labour group, said: "I am very surprised. The joke is a bit strong. One would think they could have toned it down a bit. The Lions do a lot of good work and it's not like them to go ahead with something like this."

When the swear word was first pointed out to Accrington Lions president Brian Spedding, who compiled the programme, he said the orgainsation would consider issuing a public apology.

But he later said: "I spoke to some of the other Lions about it, including our press officer, and they said there was no problem with it.

"The jokes page was just something that we used to fill a page."

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