From the Evening News, February 13, 1993: PEOPLE power has forced Bolton councillors to dump two planning applications that would have ruined residents' lives.

The planners had been told to improve a massive extension to Montcliffe Quarry at Horwich, and the building of a huge poultry processing plant on Nelson Street, Bolton.

But tireless lobbying by residents, who faced having the developments on their doorsteps, has convinced councillors to reject their advice.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 14, 1978

LONELINESS is one of the biggest problems facing old people, according to a survey. More pensioners want volunteers to chat with, than any other form of help. The survey said elderly people worried even more about loneliness than about money problems.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 14, 1953

SIR,- The other day an MP said that all children should be taught to speak with a "public school" accent. I sincerely hope the day never comes when local dialects are cast aside, and a uniform mode of speech is forced upon us.

Heaven forbid we should hear a sensible Lancashire man speaking in the affected, drawling accents of the "upper clawss" stage Englishman.

To my mind, the broad Northern vowel sounds are much nearer "pure" English than the mutilated vowels of some Southern counties. Yours, Eric Holt, Greenfold-ave., Farnworth.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 14, 1903

IN the early hours of this morning, James Redfern, a carter, of 3, Burns-st., was found lying in Bolton-rd., Farnworth, near the drinking fountain, suffering from shocking injuries, which necessitated his removal to the Bolton Infirmary.

It appears that having walked a considerable distance, and being footsore, he was given a lift by a lurryman named Peter Entwistle, in the employ of Mr. James Dickenson, hay and straw dealer, of Smith-st. It was surmised that unnoticed by the driver he fell off the lurry, the wheels of which passed over him.

PC Cubbin found him lying in a semi-conscious condition in the roadway, and it was found that he has a complicated fracture of the left thigh. He was promptly removed on the Farnworth Ambulance to the Infirmary, where he lies in a serious condition.