Lancashire nostalgia in 1992: Penwortham bypass chaos; Tom Finney and the Queen; and a £10 cup of coffee

New road slammed as motorists face delays

Fed-up drivers are being driven round the bend by a new road system designed to ease congestion in Preston.

Councillors claim the Penwortham bypass is causing huge traffic snarl-ups.

Motorists have complained of huge delays as they queue during rush hour to get in and out of the town centre.

And they say it may be helping people living in Penwortham, but it is a nightmare for people living closer to town.

Coun Dick Evans told Preston’s highways committee there was chaos along Strand Road and it was difficult for people going that way to get to Penwortham because they could not turn onto the bypass. That was creating long delays for people wanting to emerge from Riversway.

He said: “Motorists are going round the bend over this and something has to be done.”

Coun Neil Cartwright said Preston was in danger of becoming “gridlocked” by traffic.

And he said plans to give the road a proud Preston name, Guildway, was a joke when it would be making the Guild more difficult to accomplish.

Finney chats with Queen at Palace

Preston footballing hero Tom Finney, veteran from an age when footballers wore baggy shorts and First Division players were paid £12 a week, reminisced with the Queen about soccer’s good old days.

Finney, versatile two-footed maestro who could play on either wing or at centre forward, was at Buckingham Palace to receive the CBE awarded to him in the New Year honours list.

The Queen congratulated the 69-year-old, now president of North End, on his honour and remarked: “Football has certainly changed quite a bit since your day.”

Finney could not agree more saying: “It certainly has ma’am.”

He said afterwards that his award was a great honour for football an for Preston.

Drop in for a crazy £10 cup of coffee

Coffee shop owners in Lancashire have found a bizarre new brew made from cat droppings hard to swallow.

They have poured scorn on the crazy coffee which has just reached Britain from Indonesia.

It is being sold at £10 per cup at the famous Betty’s Cafe and Tea Room in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where it is such a big hit staff have run out.

The Copi Luwak coffee is reported to have a special taste because the beans ferment in the stomach of the wild palm civet cats.

But the delicacy is not likely to catch on in Lancashire, where coffee shop managers say their customers will be put off by the drink’s origins and price.

Debbie Crompton, manager of Brucciani’s, said: “People would think it was just a huge joke.”