THE Government minister responsible for tackling Millennium computer chaos has praised NORWEB's bug-busting efforts.

Mr Paddy Tipping, Labour MP for Sherwood and Parliamentary Secretary at the Privy Council, was in Bolton yesterday at the company's Call Centre in Manchester Road.

He met staff working on Millennium-readiness programmes and saw examples of the company's customer education programme.

Earlier he picked up a sledge hammer and posed symbolically with NORWEB chairman John Beckitt alongside a number of "rogue" electricity meters.

Extensive Year 2000 tests revealed that a small number of the company's 330,000 electricity meters had a problem in recognising the year 2000 as a leap year.

They will be replaced in time for the Millennium.

NORWEB, part of United Utilities, says it has identified and eradicated the Millennium Bug from all its most important business systems.

Mr Tipping said with confidence: "I know that NORWEB are going to keep the lights on up here."

The company plans to have staff either working or on call over the Millennium period to ensure "business as usual."

Mr Beckitt said: "We identified all our business critical systems and have ensured that they will not fail at the Millennium.

"No one can be entirely sure about what will happen at this year end.

"What I can say with confidence is that NORWEB has planned for the worst and so will deliver the best."

But Mr Tipping said he was worried that a lot of other companies - particularly small businesses - were not looking far enough into the future.

Places on Government bug-busting courses were still available through Business Links.

After his Bolton visit Mr Tipping assessed bug preparation at Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne and Tameside Metropolitan Council.

He is particularly keen to see that local councils take all the necessary steps to avoid chaos in their services.

"We are going to name those who are not making a big enough effort by the summer," he said.

THE Millennium Bug is the inability of many business sytems and other electronic devices to recognise the date change from 1999 to 2000.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.