THE pain of having to endure yet another increase in prescription charges must have been alleviated locally this week by two items of good health news.

The first is that the carers - who all-too-often tend to be the forgotten folk in the community - should get some welcome help through a cash boost. Four projects costing more than £60,000 have secured financial help from the health and local authority joint consultative committee.

We give full and well deserved praise to those who are in the medical care front line. But without the vital work of those behind the scenes - often the unsung heroes - our society would be in a much sorrier state. Those who look after needs of people like the elderly and infirm, the disabled and the mentally ill, often on the home front, deserved all the financial and other help possible.

The other example of medical money being well spent must be the fact that a cash boost from Wigan and Bolton Health Authority means that drug addicts trying to quit are now getting help much quicker.

An increase in staff for Bolton's Community Drugs Team has resulted in a 16 week waiting time for addicts to be seen last year now being cut to less that two weeks.

The fight against drugs seems never ending and, in some districts, the situation is claimed to be almost out of control among young people. But while efforts to prevent drugs reaching their hands are of paramount importance, we must extend every possible helping hand to those who want to kick the habit. Once again, it's another example of more unsung heroes doing vital work behind the scenes. WE'RE WALKING TALl FULL marks to Bolton Council's plans to make the town more walker-friendly. While a new report shows that few local authorities are doing much to improve life for walkers, our Town Hall aims to be among the pace-setters when it comes to pedestrianisation.

How ever much we love our cars, there's little to beat the sheer bliss of briefly getting away from the hustle and bustle of life with the internal combustion engine.

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