From the Evening News, March 27, 1992 - BOLTON'S traffic wardens have hit back at their "yellow peril" tag and claim that people really do like them.

They came under the spotlight after complaints from disabled drivers appeared in the BEN. One traffic warden said: "You don't hear about the times we appreciate a parking problem and take a more lenient view."

SHADOW Transport Secretary John Prescott, in Bolton yesterday in the election campaign, said more thought should be given to solving traffic problems. Building new roads was not the answer, he said, but it was time to address the problem of the number of cars on the road.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 28, 1977

AT least 559 people died when two huge jets collided on the Santa Cruz airport runway in Tenerife yesterday. Officials said 80 people survived. It is the world's worst air crash, and it happened in poor visibility as a Pan-Am jumbo was taxiing across the runway before taking off after a Dutch KLM 747.

LOCAL runner Peter Ravald was determined to win this year's great Horwich pub race when he stepped in for an injured friend. So for the past two weeks, Peter, aged 32, of Medway Close, Horwich, trained for the charity race by downing extra pints of beer. By the time he crossed the finishing line in first place, with a record time of 41 minutes 45 seconds, he was glad of the extra practice. He had to stop at 15 pubs along the first mile and drink eight pints of beer.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 26, 1952

TWO chairs and a cupboard are among the many gifts which the organizers of the Rotary Club of Bolton's "Help to Greece" campaign have received this week, and a large case of miscellaneous medical supplies has also been promised.

Bolton people have responded to the appeal with gifts of money, men's, women's and children's clothes, medical supplies, soap, pens, pencils, India rubbers, kitchen utensils, mending and knitting wools, and gardening tools, have been given generously.

Some English books and magazines have also been collected, but it is felt that, as the people who receive the gifts are unlikely to be able to speak anything than their own language, these will not be of much service.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 28, 1902

THE proceedings at the half-yearly meeting of the representatives of firms and subscribers to the Bolton and District Hospital Saturday Fund on Tuesday were invested with considerable interest, and there was an unusually large gathering.

The Chairman, Mr John Berry, JP, referred to the recent correspondence in the papers regarding to the Infirmary, and said it had had a rather disturbing effect.

As to the complaints about the management of the institution, let him tell them what had been done there during the past year. There were 83 beds, which, on the average, had been fully occupied; 1,334 new in-patients; 25 new in-patients had passed into the institute and occupied beds every week; 3,487 out-patients, or 67 different persons per week.

There had been 1,994 casualties treated in the accident room there, being six cases every day, and there had been between 200 and 300 home patients, and 130 new cases every week. Nine out of every ten complaints were groundless. It was, however, impossible to avoid mistakes with all those cases.