ANGELA Kelly takes a personal look at the week in cyberspace in Bolton:
On Saturday, councillors finally killed off Cllr Guy Harkin's suggestion to change Bolton's name back to Bolton-le-Moors, originally suggested amid general howls of derision from local people. Personally, I felt that my idea for him to change his name to Guy de Harkin probably had more mileage, but at least the idea brought out pride in the town .... On Monday, no-one could fail to have been horrified by the story of 80 year-old Kathleen Boyce, left bruised and battered when a thug punched her six times in the face during a burglary at her Bolton home. On a much lighter note, lively Jan Hampton -- the local lady who started her working life as a hotel receptionist -- has bought upmarket Egerton House hotel, promising a luxurious future for it .... Tuesday saw the teenager who twice raped a 17 year-old girl at knifepoint in Moses Gate country park have his life sentence slashed to seven years. Quite a few people thought seven years was far too lenient for Aytekin Yildirim's crime, and it must have been sickening for the police whose hard work finally caught him. Further despair for some at how the law is sometimes meted out in this country .... On Wednesday, the much-hyped and threatened cold weather became a reality when snow paralysed much of the Bolton and Bury areas. Schools closed, some on "health and safety" grounds; it took motorists hours, bumper to bumper, to get to work, and chaos reigned generally for a short time .... On Thursday, new laws to break up gangs of teenagers causing trouble on huge, private housing estates brought good news for under-siege householders. A crackdown was due to begin in Tyldesley, using one of the country's first operations of this kind under last year's new Anti-Social Behaviour Act. Unfortunately, such action needs to be in tandem with improvements in facilities for local youngsters to give them something useful to do, rather than be available for mischief .... And on Friday, Phoenix Nights' Dave Spikey launched a search for the comedians of tomorrow (we've still got plenty of use for the comics of today, including you, Dave!) The week ended on doom and gloom as councillors debated where to make cuts of £5 million off the Council's total budget, suggesting such humanitarian moves as hiking up pensioners' heating bills .....
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