UNWILLINGNESS to talk isn't a characteristic normally associated with the people of East Lancashire.

In shops, bus stop queues or almost anywhere you will find people chatting about almost every subject under the sun.

It's part of the friendliness of folk around here and contrasts starkly with the lack of conversation, bordering on coldness, to be found in some other parts of the country.

But, it seems, there is one subject on which people in Blackburn, Burnley and Rossendale are unusually reticent - talking about their sex lives.

So much so in fact that sex therapists at Relate Lancashire have only carried out 23 discussion sessions across East Lancashire since April compared with 64 in nearby Preston where there are 14 couples on a waiting list!

Experts say there's no evidence that there are more problems in Preston and it seems the reason is that East Lancashire people just don't want to talk about it.

While no one can force adults to discuss subjects if they don't want there is a lot of truth in the onetime BT slogan "It's good to talk" although it's not difficult to understand why some might shy away from the trend to find counsellors for every subject under the sun.

Some problems have to be faced up to and ignoring them will not go necessarily make them go away.