A NEW scheme offering free computer use in Chorley Library is proving a hit with the town's over-50s.

The Lancashire on Line project is part of a nationwide government scheme to provide free computer use in every library in the country by October 2002.

Paid for by New Opportunities Funding, it is being run in the county by the People's Network in conjunction with Lancashire College.

The town library, in Union Street, was chosen as a pilot centre for the scheme in August and now has 45 PCs, one of the largest allocations in Lancashire, for public use.

As part of the initiative the library is running courses including the Internet, sending and receiving e-mail, desktop publishing, scanning and word processing.

The courses have proved extremely popular with so-called silver surfers -- over-50s who may never have used a computer before.

Alex Wright, project co-ordinator for Lancashire College, has been running the courses. She said: "We are delighted with the response.

"The people we are getting tend to be over 50 because they have the time and they are people who wouldn't come into the college. This provides a nice first step back into education for them."

Tutors also have 100 laptops to provide courses for people in isolated places.

Andrew Cothliff, project manager for the People's Network, said: "It's very ambitious but it's going very well.

"There are 21 libraries operating the scheme in the county but we are hoping to have 44 libraries up and running across the county before the end of January and another 40 by October next year. That will be all the static libraries in Lancashire."

Courses are for two hours a week and last five weeks. The next courses begin after Christmas and will run from 6.30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 10 am to noon on Fridays. For more information and prices, call Lancashire College on 01257 260909.