A NEW era of community relations was ushered in 30 years ago on April 1 when six towns became one Bury.

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council took over officially on April 1, 1974, bringing Bury, Radcliffe, Tottington, Ramsbottom, Whitefield and Prestwich into one authority.

The new borough also gained a new identity with a specially designed symbol made up of six letter bs, by Bury housewife Mrs Susan McCallion. The former commercial artists's design was chosen from 400 entries in a competition.

Merging the names of the six towns, into one borough title proved a headache for council chiefs and Prestabury, Brigantia and Milliontown, were unacceptable to the selection committee.

There were 120 suggestions submitted by organisations, schools and members of the public and, after sifting through the entries, the team plumped for Bury.

The pattern for the reorganisation of local government emerged in the early 1960s when the Local Government Commission at the time recommended that Bury be fused with the five neighbouring towns.

The idea was also put forward for Bury to join Rochdale and nine adjacent towns to make up the district of Manchester Metropolitan County.

But reaction was strong from both Bury and Rochdale who felt they did not want to get involved in this plan.

As a result both Bury and Rochdale became separate centres of government, with Heywood joining Rochdale and Prestwich, previously with Salford, making up the six towns of Bury borough.

In Radcliffe, the end of the independent local government was celebrated at the Civic Suite, which had been opened just two days before.

Leader of Bury Council, Coun John Byrne, said: "People often say that it was better when the six towns were separate, but I don't believe that.

"I think that the new borough has enabled strength in adverse times, that the six individual places might not have been able to cope with. They might not have had the resources or personnel needed.

"We still recognise the townships with the area boards and councillors, but can still be competitive as the bigger borough."