AT first sight, you could be forgiven for thinking the picture at the top of this page shows a dumped bundle of rags.

But this is 16-year-old Lee Newman. He has been sleeping rough in a draughty, covered walkway in Bolton town centre for weeks.

And the fact that it was taken just a few months away from the dawn of the new millennium shocked some Bolton Council workers so much that they pleaded with the BEN to help.

But a Bolton councillor claims the youth and others who sleep rough in the alley don't want help when it is offered to them.

The 16 year-old, with dried blood on his face which he says came from a recent beating, lives in a cold tunnel in Bolton shopping centre - the only home he knows.

Hundreds of shoppers and office staff on their way to work through the covered alley between Newport Street and The Octagon have been stepping over Lee for the past TWO MONTHS as he huddles in his sleeping bag.

Some office workers from Bolton Council's Well Springs office block - just a stone's throw from Lee's makeshift "home" - have been so upset by the plight of the "pleasant teenager" they have pleaded with the BEN to get help for him.

But Bolton councillor Paul Perry, a Salvation Army worker, said he had tried in vain to help Lee and other down and outs in the town.

Cllr Perry goes on regular "soup runs" in vagrants' haunts.

He says he has offered Lee chits to stay at the Salvation Army Hostel and even offered to pay out of his own pocket if Lee needed any emergency money.

The councillor said today: "Many people feel sorry for this young man and others like him. But the truth is, they don't want help when it is offered. All they want is easy money.

"The young man claimed he did not like to stay at the hostel because he had been robbed there. I have checked the claim and it's simply not true".

Lee, who claims he ran away from his Liverpudlian stepfather, says he would rather sleep rough, despite being robbed and beaten by thugs, than be placed in care.

He says he sometimes earns around £10 a week - if he's lucky - juggling four balls on street corners in the town centre.

Kicked

Lee, who claims he was kicked in the head by a passer-by for no apparent reason just hours before he spoke to the BEN, says he has been homeless since he was forced to leave home after a family argument when he was 14.

At first he lived rough on the streets of Liverpool.

But two months ago, just before Christmas, Lee decided to hop on a train and try his luck in Bolton.

Speaking over a cup of tea in a Bolton cafe, Lee said: "Liverpool was a lot rougher than Bolton. There were more people sleeping on the streets and it was violent. You learn to use your head.

"But I decided I'd had enough and just jumped on a train. I didn't fancy another big city like Manchester, so I came here."

Lee, who dreams of being an entertainer in Ibiza or Amsterdam, is so unused to every day conversation that he struggles to communicate.

He is on nodding terms with other "homeless" people - although he claims many of them are not really homeless, but simply can't get out of the habit of streetlife.

Lee said: "I do tend to sit and dream all day. You get out of the habit of talking. Not many people want to know you.

"I'm a good singer and I want to be something, but I need GCSEs and I left school two years ago.

"I think about things. I want to do something in computers, I used to be good at that. I guess I'm going to have to help myself. But I can't do anything yet because I'm too young to get any benefits."

Lee says that he has been robbed many times - the latest incident when he was outside Woolworths at Christmas.

But he says he has made many friends on the streets and many Bolton vagrants have tried to keep an eye on him.

He says he has been tempted by drugs but the streetwise youngster said "they fry your brain".

He added: "I'm only 16 and I've got the rest of my life in front of me. Who knows where I'll be in the next Millennium?"

One woman member of staff at the Well Springs said: "We cannot believe, as we walk through the arcade on the way to work, that is Bolton 1999. Something has to be done for this teenager."

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