From the Evening News, March 11, 1995: A gang of shotgun raiders stole £400,000 in a meticulously-planned ram robbery at a Bolton security depot.

The masked raiders grabbed the cash after using a stolen 25 ton tipper truck as a battering ram reversing it into a side wall of the Securicor premises in Summerfield Road, Great Lever.

Two armed robbers brandishing sawn-off shotguns then burst through the debris to threaten staff inside.

CONSUMER watchdogs want Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley to get get her teeth into a major review of NHS dental services.

The National Consumer Council says NHS dentistry has almost ceased to exist in some parts of the country.

It is calling on Mrs Bottomley to introduce a new Patients Charter, giving people the right to NHS dental treatment.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

March 11, 1980

COUNCILLORS are to make a dramatic plea for more life-saving cash to tackle Boltons housing crisis after a crippling £6 million spending cut ordered by the Government.

A delegation from the housing committee is to travel to London in an attempt to wring more money from the Housing Minister, Mr Stanley.

The committee chairman, Cllr Kevan Hornby, said that although he thought Labours tale of woe was exaggerated, he supported Cllr Brian Iddons move to appoint a two-man delegation to take Boltons case to Whitehall.

Farnworth MP John Roper leaves on Sunday for a fortnight on the other side of the world.

Mr Roper and Nottingham Tory MP Philip Holland have been chosen to present post independence gifts to the new parliament of three island states in the Pacific.

They are taking a clock to the Soloman Islands and gavels to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

March 11, 1955

WOR

SLEYS population has been steadily overhauling Farnworths since the last war and the new electoral register now has 2,431 more voters than Farnworth.

In view of this Worsley, although an urban district, will have a bigger influence than the borough of Farnworth in the future appointment of MPs to represent the constituency which also includes Kearsley and Little Lever.

When Mr Ernest Thornton was elected MP at the by-election in 1952, Farnworth had 20,260 voters to Worsleys 19,829, but now the Worsley total has increased to 22,194 and Farnworths has gone down to 19,763.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

March 11, 1905

AT Wigan yesterday Ellen Hickey and M.J. Murphy, whom the Chief Constable described as bad girls who went purloining in company, were charged with theft.They had gone to the Trencherfield Mill and under the pretence of looking for work had taken a cotton operatives clog, necessitating the latter going home without a clog.Both were sentenced to three months imprisonment as incorrigibles.