PLANS are under way in Bolton for celebrations to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The royal event will mean a double celebration for the town as next year Bolton will also be playing a major part in the Commonwealth Games.

The Games' preparations are already well under way and 500,000 visitors are expected to descend on Bolton during the 10-day sporting extravaganza from July 25 to August 4.

Bolton will be hosting four events: badminton, road cycling, time trials and mountain biking.

Just a month before the Games begin, Bolton residents will have enjoyed a very different kind of celebration as they mark Queen Elizabeth's 50 years as head of the nation.

But there are fears that the flag-waving enthusiasm could be relatively tame compared with the wave of patriotic fever that greeted the Queen to mark her 25th anniversary.

The Queen has insisted there should be no "excessive" expenditure on the Golden Jubilee next year, in direct contrast to the money spent on celebrations to mark the Silver Jubilee.

In 1977 the country went jubilee crazy with street parties, massive celebrations and souvenirs. Bolton was not going to be left out and had its own programme of events to mark the historic occasion, including exhibitions, galas, fairs and parades.

Residents organised their own street parties -- 427 of them -- with banners, bunting and flags. And a Jubilee beacon shone out from Winter Hill as part of a nationwide chain begun by the Queen in Windsor Great Park.

To mark next year's Jubilee, which falls at the beginning of June, there is expected to be "a small pot of money" made available by Bolton Council for people organising street parties, as there has been for other important landmarks, including the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day in 1995.

A Bolton Council spokesman confirmed that talks were taking place to make preliminary plans for the Golden Jubilee.

He said: "We believe there will be a small pot of money available for contributions to street parties, to help people who want to buy tables and other equipment, and maybe food, but it is still in the planning stages."

He also confirmed that there would be a civic service to mark the occasion in Bolton Parish Church which would be attended by the Mayor, other civic and local dignitaries and the public.

The wedding of Charles and Diana was one of the last big royal occasions to be celebrated in Bolton and it proved to be a very colourful affair. In 1981 there were more than 100 street parties to mark the event.

The Bolton Council spokesman was aware of Buckingham Palace's instructions to keep the Golden Jubilee a "low key affair", but there would be celebrations in Bolton to mark the occasion, although less extravagant than those enjoyed in 1977. It is not going to be anything like the scale of the 25th celebrations, but there are plans for something to go on in Bolton."

Nationally there will be an extra bank holiday on Tuesday, June 4, and the Spring bank holiday will be postponed to Monday, June 3, giving a two-day break for most workers.

The Silver Jubilee year of celebrations included several international royal tours, with visits by the Queen and Prince Philip to Australasia and the Pacific, Canada and the Caribbean.

Fireworks

On May 4 the Queen addressed Parliament and then the United Kingdom tours began. At the beginning of June there was a London week which climaxed with a river progress up the Thames, a fireworks display and a procession of carriages taking the Queen back to Buckingham Palace.

On June 6 the Queen climbed Snow Hill, near Windsor Castle, where, surrounded by thousands of children, she lit a bonfire as the signal for the lighting of 100 other beacons across the country.

The next day was the big event most people remember, when a million onlookers filled The Mall to see the State Coach take the Queen and Prince Philip from the Palace to St Paul's Cathedral, followed by the Prince of Wales, on horseback, in the scarlet uniform and black bearskin of a Colonel of the Welsh Guards.

After the cathedral service the Queen went on a walkabout through the City of London, ending at the Guildhall where she addressed a lunch in her honour.

Although there was talk of royalty in the doldrums at the beginning of the year, in the wake of the failed marriage of Princess Margaret, by the autumn the media was reporting the monarchy enjoying an exceptional period of popularity and security.