These were the stories making the headlines in Blackpool in November 1988

Sub zero conditions cause traffic chaos

Emergency services were inundated with calls as sub-zero temperatures turned Fylde coast roads into icy skid pans - causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

At the peak of the crash chaos, Blackpool police were dealing with an accident a minute and all ambulances were called out.

Police had to seal off roads worst hit by ice, as motorists were caught out by the sudden cold snap.

Ambulance crews and traffic police were kept at full stretch from around 7.30pm with a string of shunts on the M55 as well as major and minor roads.

Once ambulance even fell victim to the treacherous roads, covered in sheet ice. A recovery crew had to pull the vehicle out after it skidded into a ditch in White Carr Lane, Ancorsholme.

One man was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital after an accident on Kelso Avenue, Cleveleys.

A lamp-post was demolished when two buses collided in Benson Road, Layton. Motorway police reported about half a dozen minor accidents on the M55.

A brand new BMW overturned and crashed at the end of the motorway.

Acid House music craze here to stay

Defiant nightclub bosses vowed not to ban the controversial Acid House dance craze which was sweeping the county.

Discos were overwhelmed by the response to special “Acid” parties with hundreds of people packing onto the dance floor.

But the craze has been dogged by controversy. Many youngsters are thought to take drugs including Ecstasy which are part of the Acid House culture.

But the controversy angered nightclub bosses enjoying an Acid House boom.

Alby Brooks, manager of Sands in Blackpool, which has run “Acieed” nights for the past two months, explained: “We have around 400-500 people in for the nights and to be honest when I first ran them I was a bit wary but there has been absolutely no trouble at all.”

Python terrifies Yates’ punters

Terrified customers fled as a three-foot long snake slithered into a busy Blackpool pub... and bit a drinker.

The slippery serpent slid quickly out of view and despite a massive snake-hunt was still on the loose the following day. Sixty customers at Yate’s in Talbot Square, leapt back in fear as the reptile, believed to be a python, slipped out of sight. Drinker Chris Bee caught the snake but it immediately wrapped itself around his wrist and bit him. He was taken to hospital as a precaution.

He said: “I thought I was hallucinating because this snake came sliding from under some false panelling and slithered around the curtains.”

The owner of the Aquaria Pet Shop in the same Tivoli arcade as Yates said he was not sure if the snake had escaped from the shop.

Prison expansion plan was firm no from neighbouring residents

Worried residents turned out in force to give the thumbs down to proposals for a £50m top security prison sited on Kirkham’s doorstep.

More than 200 people packed the town’s community centre to air their fears and views direct to the Home Office over the plans to site a category ‘B’ prison next to the existing open prison complex. Stephen Boyes Smith, head of the Prison Building Division, led a Home Office delegation to Kirkham, hoping to ease the worries of the locals.

In a sometimes heated public meeting which lasted over three hours, Mrs Boyes Smith outlined the policy with regard to prison building throughout England and Wales, and put forward the Home Office’s reasons for choosing Kirkham as a possible site.

The two main reasons were that the land was well located and the Home Office already owned the land.

The audience heard that the project proposed for the town was needed to ease the chronic overcrowding in the prison service in the North West and added that the Kirkham proposal was just one of 29 plans to build new prisons nationally. Residents said that a ‘fear factor would hang over the town because of the risk of possible escape from a prison which would house murderers.

All day homage to Time Lord’s big day

There was no chance that the 25th anniversary of Dr Who would go unnoticed in Blackpool.

Devoted members of Enlightment - the resort’s telefantasy group - made sure of that.

They turned their November meeting into an all-day homage to the 900 year old Time Lord, screening episodes of all seen Tardis key holders, holding a 25-years of ‘Who’ quiz and going out for a celebratory meal before rounding off the occasion with a firework display. The group formed to give locals somewhere to go after the closure of Blackpool’s Dr Who Exhibition in 1986. Millions of Whovians all over the world were expressing their delight at the longevity of the charming BBC show which started on November 23 1963, when the nation was still reeling from the assassination of President John F Kennedy earlier in the day. A special party was held at the BBC at which station bosses delighted at the improved ratings prompting series two. Outgoing producer John Turner said: “Dr Who is a man travelling in time and space fighting evil, so from a purely historical view we could run for 2,000 years!”