I


The Clitheroe a n d v i e w s from the Centre of-the Kingdom. .Thursday, October 11th, 2001 No. 5,976 ' X


Collect our tokens to win your


AT A GLANCE


The way in which the foot and mouth epidemic has been han­ dled may have been a reason for the suicide of a Gisburn farmer,


i. page 3


The town’s chamber of trade is facing a membership crisis.


- page 18


A father and son ended up in the police cells after a 21st birthday party turned into a disaster.


— page 3


Objectors to new tennis courts finished up with a ticking off.


page 2


There was a warm church welcome for two visiting pastors from Romania.


■ii page 10


Clitheroe Sorting Office had a brush with danger after a bomb scare on Tuesday.


'page 2


A police operation involving the force helicopter led to a man appearing in court on a charge of stealing diesel fuel.


page 3


FOGGITT’S WEEKEND x WEATHER: Remaining cold and blustery, but dry.


SUNRISE: 7-16 a.m. SUNSET: 6-18 p.m.


LIGHTING UP TIME: 6-25 p.m.


\m CALL US


News: 01200 422324 Advertising: 01200 422323 Classified: 01282 422331- Fax:01200 443467


Editorial e-mail: clithcroc.cditoriaI@


rim.co.uk to help Tina


Appeal is launched for an electric wheelchair by Julie Frankland


PRETTY Tina Steven­ son is hoping her letter to Father Christmas


i For the nine-year-old Edisford Primary School


beats the rush, pupil has a very special


request. Born three months premature and barely


I weighing more than a bag of sugar, Tina suf­ fered a brain haemor­ rhage. Yet she battled through and although it left her with cerebral palsy, which means she needs the support of cal­ lipers and sticks to walk, she enjoys nothing better than playing outside and doing all the things her


| friends like to do. Yet to maintain this


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I freedom, Tina's physio­ therapist has recom­ mended parents Mr and Mrs Paul and Dawn Stevenson, of Henthom | Road, provide her with


an electric wheelchair, but it comes with a £2,500 price tag. Having been told by


the area's Preston-based Disablement Services unit that it is currently processing requests made as long ago as 1997 for wheelchairs, while add-ing all other names to its waiting list, the Stevenson family has decided to launch a local


appeal for help. Explained Mr Steven­


son: "We can't afford to buy Tina the wheelchair and if we were to wait for one from Disablement Services, Tina would have lost a lot of her childhood by the time it


arrived. “Yet she loves being


independent. Little things like popping to the shop on her own mean a lot to her and while sticks are okay for


HOPING for community support, courageous Tina with her father (CG81001/9)


inside the house, she needs the wheelchair for


outside." Mr Stevenson, who is


a full-time carer, looking after Tina, her sister Joanne (five) and his wife, who has her own medical problems, add­ ed: "We have been told that a manual wheelchair, which would be cheaper, is no good for Tina as the action of leaning forward and propelling herself by pushing on the wheels would encourage further


curving of her spine. We therefore have no choice


but to go for the dearer option. It would be fan­ tastic if we could get her the wheelchair for Christ­


mas." While Tina has written


to Father Christmas and secured promises from her friends that they will help her raise money for her "wheels", Mr and Mrs Stevenson have enlisted the help of two stalwart fund-raisers in Clitheroe mothers Mrs Glynis High


and Mrs Helen Jackson. Former pub landlady


Mrs High ran a cam­ paign to raise money for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, which treated her daughter, Zoe (nine), for leukaemia. Zoe was given the all-clear from her cancer in August. Mrs Jackson ran a 1995 campaign to raise money for Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital following the death of her 21- month-old son.


know how generous local I people can be. We are sure people in Clitheroe will want to help Tina." Anyone wanting to


Mrs High said: "We .


•Jackson on 01200 443546 or Mr Stevenson on 01200 442495. They would also like to hear from any pubs willing to hold bucket collections or from.anybody with novel fund-raising ideas.


Why not try washing your dusty car with vinegar, suggests Castle Cement


” by John Turner


RESIDENTS of a Clith­ eroe estate have decided


| not to follow advice from Castle Cement and wash


their cars with vinegar. "It would smell as if I


worked in a fish and chip shop," said one of the Bal­ moral Estate residents. The advice came after resi­


dents had been pressing the company for answers over coatings of fine dust which regularly covers their cars, garden furniture and window


frames. When the dust gets wet it


sticks and is difficult to


remove. They claim that it is abrasive and leaves marks behind after washing. The main campaigner -


who asked for his identity not to be publicly revealed - this week sent a dossier of corre­ spondence to the Managing Director of Castle Cement in Birmingham. He was angry at his com­


plaints not being dealt with efficiently by staff at the Clitheroe works. 1 He also sent a copy of the


correspondence, which began in August, to Ribble Valley Borough Council and Ribble Valley MP Mr Nigel Evans. His covering letter states: "I


them to clean up their act and stop dumping their rubbish on


. . . me. "If this dust was purely ,


quarry dust, then I would accept that there is very little that can be done to control


that."However, this stuff is dif­


ferent, and presumably comes from the production processes. As such, it must be control­


lable."It is deposited on our cars, houses and gardens and can­


have no desire to see Castle Cement closed, I simply want


not simply ;be brushed off. It sticks to surfaces when there is any moisture at all. The resul­ tant damage can clearly be seen on car bodywork, garden furniture, PVC window frames and conservatories."


XT-He said the advice to wash to wash . "One neighbour hac


the cars in vinegar came from Castle Cement's Mr Chris


Fish. "He demonstrated that the


dust could be removed by washing the car with neat vinegar (not very practical or satisfactory) and it did not improve the state of the paint­ work," wrote the complainant. He first realised something


was wrong when one of his two cars had been parked at Heathrow Airport for two weeks and remained clean, compared to the car left parked at his home in


Clitheroe. He told the Advertiser and


Times that all his neighbours complained of the dust


by John Turner


A VOLLEY of rocks, hurled down from the battlements of Clitheroe Castle, narrowly missed a couple and their two-


year-old son. Cabinet maker Mr Gary


Wilson, his wife, Leone, and son Elliott were walking through the Castle grounds on Saturday afternoon when the missiles crashed through trees above them and landed feet


away. Mr Wilson said: "Some of . , „„ f


those rocks were nearly the size of my fist. If one of them had hit my son, it most likely would have killed him." He immediately went up a


path through the trees and saw four boys aged between 14


and 16. He believed two were boys


he had spoken to earlier because of their bad language and because they were tying the chains of swings in the children's playground in


knots. As soon as they saw him


they ran off. Mr Wilson went to a shop in Castle Street and telephoned the police. While he was waiting out­


unusual th a t they had run away from him twice. "People don't normally run


Doctor’s vital role at


Near miss for family as hooligans throw rocks from the Castle Keep


side the shop, the four boys began to walk from the Castle grounds at the same time as the police turned up. They ran away, but the


away from me," he added. "I felt I had a duty to report it to the police. Someone could so easily have been badly injured or killed. I get crosser and crosser paying council tax every month and I see what's happening to the Castle grounds and nothing is being


done about it. "We are relying too much


police caught up with them on the other side of the Castle


grounds. "Kids don’t normally run


from people unless they have been up to something," said Mr Wilson, who said the prob­ lem he faced was being able to give evidence on oath that the boys were responsible for the stone-throwing. He didn't see them at the time, they were behind trees, but it was


on closed circuit television. The police need to be present. There should be more regular foot patrols. When kids are caught involved in acts of vandalism they should be charged and they should be made to work to pay off their


debt."We are neglecting our chil­ dren by failing to respond properly to these problems in the Castle grounds." Inspector Bob Ford said the four youths they spoke to


Fear of foot and mouth reappearing


FEAR of the return of foot and mouth dis­ ease has spread through the Ribble Valley as blood tests have led to further culls of sheep. Just miles away from which is now known as


the Ribble Valley border, initial blood tests made at a Giggleswick farm were declared positive,


resulting in the culling of 183 sheep. Farmer Mr Chris


Mellin, of Hyles Moor Farm, said: "The sheep have been culled, but we have not been classed as a


positive case." He said that blood


MR WILSON with his son, Elliott (C08I001/10) turned out to be witnesses to


the incident. Stones and loose material below the museum had been


thrown over a cliff. "There was no damage, but


it is disorder and nuisance and


could have injured somebody," he said. He added that they were


following inquiries into the incident and had been sup­ plied with a name of someone they planned to interview.


antibodies indicated the presence of foot and mouth disease and the flock was culled as a pre­ caution. However, the cattle on the farm have not been culled, which has caused Mr Mellin and his family to ques­ tion the way DEFRA is running this phase of the FMD operation. Mr Mellin said: "The


the "Settle Blue Box". A DEFRA spokes­


man explained that anti­ bodies show an animal has been exposed to the disease and has built up a resistance -without becoming diseased and infectious, or has had the disease arid recovered from it, which happens in


sheep.Animals found with antibodies are slaugh­ tered as a precaution, even though they should not be infectious. After slaughter, more


samples are taken from the carcases and if live infection is found then the premises are declared infected and contiguous culls will take place. The slaughter at Hyle


vet told us they should all be culled as the sheep have been in pasture with the cattle. He was on the phone to DEFRA for an hour and a half, but as it had not transmitted to the cows DEFRA said it was all OK. If this had happened a month ago they would all have been killed."


Moor farm follows a cull on September 23rd at Holme Farm, Horton-in- Ribblesdale, where 200 cattle and 900 sheep were slaughtered on suspicion of having the disease. The blood tests were later found to be negative. The blood testing pro­


testing was routine and that the sheep could have had the disease for months, having possibly been infected during the summer.'The antibodies have been found as a result of large-scale routine blood testing which has been continuing in the area ini­ tially designated by DEFRA as the Settle/- Clitheroe rectangle, but


He said that the blood


cedure has proved to be a trying time for Mr Mellin and his family. He said that the deci­


sion not to cull the cattle was still a worry as they have to wait for 21 days for the final blood test results on them to be


returned. Two neighbouring


farms could also yet be


affected. It is 15 weeks since a


case was confirmed in the Ribble Valley and there are now calls for access restrictions to be lifted.


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"One neighbour had been


writing to Castle Cement, but given up writing because he was getting nowhere," he


added. He said he was sure the dust


came from within the Castle


Cement Works. "I am positive they can con­


trol it - because there hasn't been any for three weeks since I stepped up my campaign,"


he said. One of his letters to the


company stated: "If one of our other neighbours con­ stantly emptied their vacuum cleaner over the fence onto our house, garden furniture and cars, I am sure that if they continued after reasonable • continued on page 2


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