Blackpool news making the headlines in May 1999

Culshaw in resort to defend boxing title

World title boxing came to Blackpool and WBU flyweight title holder Peter Culshaw was out to have a birthday bash!

Culshaw was 26 on the day of the bout, but before the partying Culshaw had serious business in the ring at the Winter Gardens defending his title against rugged Argentinian Adrian Ochoa on a bill packed with quality.

The champion climbed on to the scales for the pre-fight weigh-in, having shed all his clothes.

But he was within the weight limit at 7st 13-and-three-quarter pounds.

Culshaw, from Liverpool, was hungry to keep the title - but had adopted a radical change of diet for the second defence of his belt.

An attack of wind severely hampered his performance against South African Zolile Mbityi two months earlier, when he scraped home via a split decision.

That was down to a jellybean binge in the week leading up to the bout.

“I haven’t touched a jellybean since my last fight,” Culshaw admitted. “I’m giving them a miss after what happened.

“Now it’s fish and pasta but that’s sound, I don’t miss the jellybeans. I really like pasta.”

Gardener’s fury over Bispham allotment site proposal halt

An allotment holder said she was livid with eco-campaigners who delayed council plans to build a new, state-of-the-art allotment site in Bispham.

Town hall chiefs hoped to sell off the Leys Farm site for housing development and ordered the bulldozers to move in to flatten the allotments.

Gardeners evicted from bulldozed Leys Farm have been offered alternative plots at a new site planned for Moor Park Avenue.

But work on the new site was delayed by anti sell-off campaigners who applied to have the area designated a protected town green.

Doreen Taylor, who gave up gardening at Leys Farm and hoped to move to Moor Park, said she was furious with the campaigners for delaying work on the new site.

She said: “I am livid. I can understand what the campaigners are demonstrating about but their tactics have left us with nowhere to go.”

But Mrs Taylor, who joined Moor Park Allotments Association, added: “If we had been given the choice we would have stayed at Leys Farm.”

Cash bid hopes for Millennium event

Community groups were hoping for a slice of cash for a millennium celebration event thanks to a new lottery scheme.

The Millennium Festival Awards for All was a programme set up to give local groups a helping hand in developing ideas to mark the historic event.

Run by lottery organisations, the scheme aimed to find projects that encouraged people’s involvement in their local community, bringing them together to enjoy arts, sport, heritage, charitable and other community based activities.

Blackpool’s Arts Development Office Lynn Fade said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for local groups who need an injection of cash to realise their projects.”

She added that the application process was quick and simple and cash awards ranging from £500 to £5,000 would fund the whole event with no match funding required.

Bug in water claims more than 200 victims

A waterborne bug which can be life-threatening for people suffering from certain conditions has struck down more than 200 people in the North West - including dozens in Lancashire.

Environmental health experts confirmed that there have been 217 cases of cryptosporidium in the region since April 1.

The main symptom of cryptosporidium is mild diarrhoea which can last for several weeks.

Although it usually clears up in a healthy person without treatment it can be serious for people suffering from HIV or other conditions which lower the body’s immune system.

More than a third of those diagnosed as suffering from the bug are from Lancashire - 35 from Preston and Blackpool and 51 from Chorley and South Ribble. Other areas affected are Wigan, Bolton, Salford and Trafford.

The unusually high number of cases was revealed following a meeting attended by environmental health officers, consultants in communicable disease control and experts from the North West Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. Investigations into the cause of the outbreak are continuing.