BOLTON Tories have raised just £600 between them for the General Election election fighting fund - despite the fact that polling day is just months away.

And Conservatives in Home Office Minister Tom Sackville's marginal and largely affluent Bolton West seat have not contributed a penny.

Neither have the Tories in Labour held Bolton South-east. On the day the Tory Party Conference opened in Bournemouth, the collapsing revenue in the central fighting "pot" has turned into a huge headache for Conservative battle planners in an area with four key marginal seats in Bolton and Bury. But Tom Sackville's agent James Stevens today refuted suggestions that there was any funding crisis in Bolton West. He said: "We do what we can sending money to Central Office. "But we have concentrated money locally on very important work such as our detailed surveys of the local electorate.

"We believe people donate money locally to make sure the Conservatives are well represented locally and Central Office understand that. I have no worries about having the money to fight a good campaign."

Bromley Cross councillor Norman Critchley also denied there were any funding problems in Bolton North-east.

The best news for the Tory treasurers comes from Bury North - narrowly held by Social Security Minister Alistair Burt - where £1,240 has been raised for general election funds in the 1995/96 financial year. But that is still just 20.4 per cent of its £6,069 target. The Bury performance was the best in the BEN area but still below the appalling 27 per cent of target average for the North-west as a whole.

Bolton West's and Bolton South-east's failure to raise a single penny is even worse than the previous year's performances.

In 1994/95 Mr Sackville's constituency raised just £150 in 1994/95 - 3.3 per cent of its £4,497 target.

And in the same year Bolton South-east - held by retiring Labour MP David Young provided just £20 towards its 1,092 target (1.8 per cent).

This year Tory David Sumberg's Bury South raised £200 (4.3 per cent of its £4651 target) a big increase on 1994/95's £100 (2.2 per cent of its £4,560 target).

Rossendale and Darwen raised £439 (10.4 per cent of its £4,204 target) slightly down on the previous year's £482 ( (10.6 per cent of its £4,559 target). Worsley (held by Labour's Terry Lewis) also failed to give a single penny, Salford just £25 (2.5 per cent of its £998 target and Leigh £100 (10.6 per cent of its £944 target).

As a whole the North-west raised £69,999.

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