War of words over Preston bingo hall mums, Lancashire firemen get the axe, and Blackpool better than Miami?

Women split over bingo-mums ban

Women who play bingo are not suitable to be foster parents according to a Lancashire councillor. They would not be loving mothers, or care enough about their children, she said.

But in Preston, a social services chief doesn’t agree with Mrs Dorothy Fogg, a 50-year-old mother of two, who told a St Helens council meeting that bingo mums were “not the sort we would seek as loving, caring mothers.”

“We might as well start looking in betting shops,” said Mrs Fogg, who said she played bingo twice a year.

She persuaded the council not to advertise in bingo halls in the future.

But a publicity campaign to attract foster parents will soon be under way in Preston. Posters will appear in schools, libraries and shops next month.

A spokesman for Lancashire social services department pointed out that anyone who played bingo also shopped, rode on buses and saw posters in other places.

A “Post-poll” survey revealed that most women thought Mrs Fogg ought to know that women who play bingo are more likely to play for fun and company.

Lancashire firemen are to get the axe

More than 800 firemen in the Lancashire county brigade are to be given the axe - for keeps.

The decision was taken by the county fire service committee, which was told by fire chief Mr Jack Warden that they had come to the end of their usefulness. Axes, that is.

“Since time immemorial, the popular picture of a fireman has been a chap with a helmet, tunic, boots and an axe in his belt,” Mr Warden told councillors, “And for centuries almost nobody has questioned it.”

Mr Warden admitted that one or two of them had had accidents or what he called “near misses” after getting their axes caught in the rungs of ladders.

Councillors threw out a suggestions that the axes could be sold, and decided instead to give the firemen their axes.

Yes, Blackpool is world’s top resort

Blackpool is the greatest seaside resort in the world, in the wide experience of a man who has just had a rare opportunity to compare it with the American millionaires’ playground of Miami Beach.

Mr Ken Parkin was so struck by the difference between the two that he wrote to the “Post” from his home in Stockton, Teeside, to tell us that “Lancashire people are indeed fortunate to have this paradise in their own backyards.

“It is more exciting, more alive and certainly more fun than the ‘sun capital of Florida’,” he wrote.

“I saw more people smiling and enjoying the Golden Mile of Blackpool than I did on the 20 or so miles of Miami’s expensive coast.”

A spokesman for the English Tourist Board said Mr Parkin’s reaction was “just as we would have expected.”