ANGELA Kelly takes a personal look at the week in cyberspace in Bolton:

Saturday started badly with the news that one of Bolton's oldest companies is to close with the loss of 48 jobs. The Belmont Bleaching and Dyeing Company in Belmont Village has been in operation for 126 years, but will cease production by the end of the year after it was sold to a Chinley firm. Its premises are also a landmark to hundreds of local motorists who regularly pass through the industrial estate there.

The town's most powerful woman -- Cllr Barbara Ronson, the Leader of Bolton Council -- spoke out about the debilitating illness which threatened to put her in a wheelchair. The long-serving Horwich councillor was struck down with Polymyalgia Rheumatica, a rare auto-immune inflammatory disease, and spent the last couple of years trying bravely to continue in public life. She is now recovering well.

Monday reported the worrying incident at a Bolton bar when a 29 year-old man suffered a gaping wound after a glass was thrust in his face. This raises once more the controversy surrounding the need for shatter-proof glasses. It's a hard one to enforce, but surely most responsible licensees could use them exclusively?

On a brighter note, a police officer from Bolton is to be rewarded after risking his life to stop a dangerous drink-driver. PC Neil Austen hung on to a fleeing car's door frame and was dragged along the road as the driver tried to shake him off.

Tuesday revealed happier news for local healthcare services -- Bolton is to get a new NHS dentist for 1,500 patients in the New Year. Bury denitist Mark Cohen is to open a new surgery in Blackburn Road, Astley Bridge, which is sure to be inundated by potential patients.

A free show by the Regimental Band of the Queen's Coldstream Guards prompted a ticket rush at Smithills School. More than 1,000 people tried to get tickets, which just shows that in Bolton we know a good thing when we hear it!

Wednesday had the shiver-enducing case of the young Bolton couple who discovered a four-foot long Great Plains Rat snake beneath their baby daughter's cot. Seven month-old Caitlyn slept on, but mum Julie Greasley and dad Gareth Smith are likely to have nightmares for a while about the incident. Animal experts think it was an escaped pet which had found shelter as the temperature dropped.

A clever twist on the thorny subject of fly-posting could well spell the end of this unsightly past-time. Bolton Council chiefs are set to follow the lead of nearby authority Stockport Council and paste "Cancelled" notices over fly-posters.

At present, the posters scar all kinds of empty local buildings and street walls, with Bolton's now closed Grade II listed building The Swan Hotel a regular target. Let's hope this brainwave makes a difference.

Thursday reported on a welcome showing of the Thomas Moran picture which the people of Bolton helped to save for the town a couple of years ago. "Nearing Camp on the Upper Colorado River" is a stunning landscape which cost £1.3 million to keep in the artist's birthplace. It takes pride of place in an exhibition at Bolton's Art Gallery, in the illustrious company of other Moran pictures and two other exhibitions featuring work by Turner, Millais, Rosetti, Epstein and Hepworth.

And after the good news on dentists, the situation decayed later in the week with an announcement that Boots has pulled its dentistry practice from its Shipgates' town centre store. It's part of a national move as Boots revealed it is making a loss on dentistry, lazer eye correction, chiropody and lazer hair removal which are all also going.

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