MANY residents who recognise the names of traditional local districts such as Halliwell, Deane and Smithills have had some difficulty over the last seven years with a new invention - East Bolton.

I doubt whether there are that many living elsewhere in the borough who know that this artificially-created "district" takes in Breightmet, Tonge Fold, Tonge Moor, Hall i'th' Wood, the Haulgh and parts of Burnden and Darcy Lever.

They were areas of the town - identified as being in need of help - which were joined together when the Government allocated £20 million for a welcome regeneration scheme which winds up at the end of this month.

It is estimated that a further £100m+ has been "levered in" from public and private sources as a result and there will be a physical legacy which includes new health centres, street improvements in the Tonge Moor Road/Thicketford Road areas, a £1.2m Environmental Resource Centre and the Leverhulme Community Club.

But the main emphasis has been on involving members of the community in a wide range of activities and initiatives which have seen dedicated workers tackle issues such as disability problems, crime, health/fitness education, parental help and the skills needed to find and retain employment.

Cllr Frank White was initially the chairman of the supervising board and - after stepping down during his spell as Mayor of Bolton - is currently vice-chairman.

He tells me that the exercise has been "people-based" from the start and points out that the number of residents' associations involved has grown from two to nine in the lifetime of the project.

As East Bolton Regeneration begins to wind up its affairs - it has to report to the government by June - the hope is that sufficient community spirit has been engendered to help the people of "East Bolton" face the future.

"We think we have planted enough seeds for it to develop onwards," Cllr White says.

Hopefully, that will be the case because all politicians seem to be agreed that social coherence has more chance of success if it grows from the bottom upwards.

No doubt there are residents in the above-mentioned areas who do not believe life is a bed of roses, but seven years of hard endeavour has gone into improving their existence in various positive ways.

If you call up the organisation's web-site - www.eastboltonregeneration.co.uk - you get a strong flavour of the massive amount of work which has been going on in this part of the town.

It has followed on from other important investment schemes including City Challenge - something you might bear in mind when you go to the cinema or a job in the hidden valley between Blackburn Road and Tonge Moor Road, which was a post-industrial wilderness not very long ago.

Do people ever thank the Government of the day for this kind of thing?

Don't be silly.

Finally, I add my voice to the chorus of opposition to the proposed fluoridation of local water supplies.

We should not be medicated against our will.