EXCELLENT news that health bosses in Bolton believe they are winning the battle to stop people smoking.

The Bolton Evening News launched its Stub it Out campaign last October when we called for a ban in the town on smoking in pubs, restaurants and municipal buildings and Adrian Butterworth from Fresh Focus praised our efforts.

But he admits there is still a long way to go.

I remember as a child adverts for cigarettes were on the television night after night and they were always terribly glamorous. Handsome men and beautiful women sparking up at equally glamorous parties, laughing as they blew swirls of smoke up into the air.

That is why I couldn't wait to try it for myself.

I wanted to look just as glamorous and sophisticated and I was convinced all the boys would think me irresistable and very "it"

My friends and I were never seen without our packets of Galloise and, in turn, we'd never even give a chap a second glance if he wasn't enveloped in a haze of smoke. You see, it was the advertising men who had caught our impressionable attention - we wanted to be those bohemian beatnicks, dressed in black and smoking a fag.

Luckily for me, I actually hated smoking and quit as soon as I realised I could spend my money on make-up (not because I thought smoking was bad for me) and I became old enough to realise I was an ad man's dream. While adverts for cigarettes have been banned for years, the gaspers still get a good press.

You only need to flick open any celeb mag or national newspaper to see the likes of Kate Moss, Britney Spears, Rachel Stevens, Johnny Depp or Pete Doherty dragging on a cigarette.

Stop publishing these pictures and it might go some way to proving to the impressionable young that it is not cool to smoke.

And don't forget, today is No Smoking Day.

Drivers still using their mobiles:

USING mobile phones while driving was banned over 12 months ago.

This means that, from what I have seen anyway, that at least a dozen people a day are breaking the law.

Yesterday morning I was driving into work behind a driver who I thought was heavily intoxicated - even at 7.45 am.

But when I pulled up at the side of the car at the traffic lights at the bottom of St George's Road, I looked in the window to see a woman talking on a mobile phone (not hands free I might add) while applying lipstick.

I love talking on the phone like any other woman but, if mine rings while I'm driving I pull up to answer the call.

And if that woman is reading this - with a mouth as big as that, you need a bigger mirror to apply lipstick, love.

Maradona's sad demise:

FORMER Argentina football captain, Diego Maradona is recovering from an operation to reduce his bulging waistline - a gastric bypass to be precise

Apparently the procedure reduces his stomach, forcing him to eat less after a diet of drink, drugs and bingeing on junk food caused him to balloon up like a Puffa fish.

Hopefully it will work because, although I still believe that while he is the biggest sporting cheat of all time, he really was one of the greatest players football has ever seen.

Own goal:

TEACHERS are calling for soccer matches to be shown after the TV watershed of 9pm because players are setting such a bad example to youngsters with their swearing, violence and cheating.

I'm not a massive football fan but I do know they call it "the beautiful game" Some players don't have personalities to match.

Singing is not Jordan's strength:

JORDAN, reckons she lost out to Javine, in the Making Your Mind Up programme (pre-Eurovision Song Contest) because she is five months pregnant and wouldn't look her usual slinky self when the actual contest comes around. Hello. Earth to Jordan. You didn't win because of one screamingly obvious reason. You can't sing.

Top chef Jamie deserves a medal:

THREE cheers for chef Jamie Oliver whose complete disgust at the Turkey Twizzlers by Bernard Matthews served up in some school dinners has led to a schools' catering company banning them from the menu.

In his current CH 4 televison programme, Jamie's School Dinners, the chef is trying to re-educate the so-called educated in what not to serve children.

I bet if you asked 100 children what they wanted for lunch, 100 would reply "chips" or, as we saw on the programme "Turkey Twizzlers"

Jamie Oliver pointed out that the Twizzlers were only 34 per cent turkey with the rest being made up of water, pork fat, rusk, sugar, salt and a whole host of E numbers.

Now catering company, Scolarcrest (which serves 2,000 school meals across the country) has agreed to withdraw Turkey Twizzlers from all schools by Easter.

People have been quick to slag off Jamie Oliver over the past few years. I reckon he should be up for an OBE just for what he's done to Turkey Twizzlers.

Why must accidents have to happen:

THE owner of Meadow Hill Nursery is calling for a crossing to be erected outside the nursery on Chorley Old Road.

Apparently the staff have to play Russian roulette when the children have to cross the extremely busy road to reach the bus stop on the other side - they are frequently taken on cultural trips into Bolton town centre and use public transport to get to their destinations.

But council chiefs have said that there has been no history of an injury or accident in that particular spot so they cannot recommend the introduction of a pedestrian crossing there.

Do we have to wait for an accident to happen then?