Lancashire nostalgia in 1987: Shop gets bashed; print problems; and Captain in hot water

Shop gets bashing for lowering tone

Traders and councillors have launched a fierce onslaught on a store which has set up on a town centre high street.

The Price Bashers, which advertises itself as the cheapest shop on Earth, has opened on Fishergate in the heart of Preston.

It will be operating in the store once occupied by Boots the Chemists during the lucrative run up to Christmas.

But the fancy-goods shop, which is decorated with fluorescent signs amid the boarded up frontage, has attracted fierce criticism from other traders.

Chairman of Preston’s chamber of trade, Michael Banks, said: “It’s a shame that they should spoil the whole appearance of the town centre.

“We want to get classier shops into Preston. That would be the ideal. They don’t seem to care what they look like, as long as they are making money.”

Mr Banks, whose family have owned Banks Jewellers on Lune Street, Preston, for over 50 years, says that the CoT is worried about all kinds of short-term trading.

Roy Ashmore, manager of Price Bashers, defended the store, claiming that Preston traders are frightened of competition.

Siting of newspaper print centre defended

Critics of a newspaper printing centre under construction at Broughton were told the site was the best place in the borough for industry.

Coun Albert Richardson defended the planning decision at a Preston Council meeting and said: “We have industry going where it should be - it will keep heavy vehicles out of the town and there could not be a better place for high buildings.”

He was answering complaints which Sharoe Green councillors were making on behalf of residents.

Coun Jack Heatley said the residents were worried about the size of the United Provincial Newspapers centre being built on Eastway.

He added: “The height is about 60 feet and close to the houses. We can only rectify it now by landscaping.”

Contractors had been doing what they could to screen the building and what mattered was what it would look like in the future.

Caped crusader lands in hot water!

Captain Saturday landed himself in comic-strip style bath-time bother when he tried to deliver flowers to an unsuspecting victim.

For he burst into Janet Pritchard’s house - and caught her starkers!

Janet, a 25-year-old tax officer, was enjoying a blissful soak when the mysterious caped figure burst in, clutching a bouquet of flowers.

Horrified Janet grabbed a towel to cover her embarrassment and slammed the door.

It then dawned on the Captain, who works for Radio Lancashire, that he had picked the wrong home.

Janet, of Tintern Avenue, Chorley, said: “I didn’t hear him come into the house because I had the radio on.

“It was a shock when he came upstairs and opened the door. I let out a big scream.”