JANUARY - IT WAS a taxing start to the year for Blackpool folk with a planned 12.9 per cent council tax hike. Wyre and Fylde residents were also less than pleased with Lancashire County Council's plans to add £70 to council tax bills.

The Fylde's new £2.5 million Macmillan Windmill cancer unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital opened after three years of fund-raising by the Macmillan Windmill Appeal.

TA reservists were preparing for call-up to an Iraq war, while a Fylde pensioner sparked an anthrax scare by posting a teddy bear to Burnley -- with anti-static powder.

Blackpool FC fans started a campaign to get former Seasider Jimmy Armfield a knighthood.

And Blackpool Pleasure Beach stalwart Doris Thompson MBE celebrated her 100th birthday.

FEBRUARY

February was a fruity month for Layton dad-of-three Dave Vickers. He bought a new digital camera from a Blackpool shop only to find saucy snaps of a romping couple already stored in the camera. "It's really not on," he said.

Blackpool was top of the marriage flops in England and Wales, with 17,578 divorced or separated people living in the town according to the 2001 Census statistics, released in February.

Thornton man Barry Twyford, 45, of West Drive was given a two and a half year prison sentence for his part in a £170,000 benefits scam triangle.

William Gillen, head teacher at Blackpool's Arnold School, was cleared by a London judge of allegations of bullying his former head of sixth form Dr David Grimshaw.

Meanwhile, a new support group for Lytham's Lowther Gardens was launched.

MARCH

Blackpool's £1 billion draft 'masterplan' was unveiled featuring a 32,000 square foot arena close to Central Pier and an overhaul of the Golden Mile. Council leader Cllr Roy Fisher said the plan was less Las Vegas, more regeneration.

No frills airline Ryanair announced it would launch Dublin and London Stansted routes from Blackpool Airport this year.

Sunshine Wood was made the subject of Lancashire's first full anti-social behaviour order by Blackpool Magistrates. The 16-year-old, of Powell Avenue, Blackpool, was the second person nationwide to be put under a full ASBO.

And convicted killer Neil Morrison, 27, from Morecambe was caught in Markhill Street, South Shore this month after more than a month on the run from Kirkham Prison.

APRIL

This was the month for politics, with postal voting getting under way in Blackpool ahead of the May 1 local elections day. A giant vote-ometer was even erected at Blackpool Town Hall to encourage residents to cast their votes.

A 'city of Fylde' merging Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre councils became a possibility as councils talked about the proposed North West regional assembly.

Elsewhere, Fleetwood's Royal Marine commando, Eric Walderman, found fame when the world's media told how his bullet-ridden helmet had saved his life during fighting in Iraq.

Later the media accused him of playing a prank when it emerged the holes had actually been made by an explosion under the helmet as it lay on the ground. But the 25-year-old's mum, Brenda, of Devon Avenue, Fleetwood, said people had jumped to conclusions 'without bothering to get their facts straight'.

MAY

The Imperial Hotel received a not-so favourable review from Observer hack, John Arlidge, who checked-in to cast a critical eye over the resort in the light of Ryanair's move to Blackpool Airport. According to Arlidge the hotels cocktails tasted like "fabric sofenter" and the staff were "graduates of the Basil Fawlty school of hotel management."

Blackpool youngster, Cassie Spinks, 16, wowed audiences nationwide singing "Xanadu" as Olivia Newton-John on ITVs Stars In Their Eyes Kids.

Regeneration may be a good thing but traders on Queen Street were left shouting "stop strangling our businesses' after builders were brought in for rebuilding work marking the 8th year of almost continuous disturbance to the shopping area.

Council licensing official adjourned a hearing after police objected an alcohol licence Blackpool's first male lap dancing club catering solely for the ladies, Wicked.

JUNE

Blackpool Womble -- Dennis Bostock -- resurfaced to chat exclusively to The Citizen about his unusual litter hoarding habits. Earlier in the year council environmental health officials were granted a court order to sell the 66-year-old's Bloomfield Road home to pay a £12,000 cleaning bill.

Anti-gambling campaigners urged Blackpool Borough Council to turn their attentions to creating more family attractions following news of a government shake-up of gambling regulations.

Richard De Vere, Tracy Dawson and Pleasure Beach managing director, David Cam, were among the local 'celebrities' put behind bars for the Jail'n'Bail event in aid of the MacMillan Cancer Relief Windmill Appeal.

The Lytham Town Trust put in a bid for £3.7m in lottery funding hoping the cash would establish the stately home as a tourist attraction and conference centre.

A Lancashire asphalt worker was awarded £10,000 by Blackpool Magistrates after being castrated in a horrific accident at St Annes. Stacey Waring, 30, from Bolton, was injured outside Newfield Jones Construction, Fleet Street.

Rumours began circulating that the Norbreck Castle Hotel was to be sold off in a multi-million pound deal with its current owners, Le Meridian.

JULY

All male lap dancing bar, Wicked, was officially given the go-ahead by council licensing officials.

The fate of the Norbreck Castle Hotel was sealed after owners, Le Meridian, sold it to Cheshire-based firm, Britannia Hotels, for a cool £6m.

Thousands of pensioners braved the rain for the annual Pensioners' March organised as part of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) being held in the resort.

Masterplan blueprints were set to change after police snubbed proposals to build a brand new police station in the heart of future Blackpool. A report from the Lancashire Police Authority Resources Committee confirmed that Police Commanders would not be undertaking a move to the new site at Talbot Road within the next five years.

Blackpool Womble, Dennis Bostock finds himself behind bars after being arrested by court bailiffs for committing a number of offences under the Environmental Protection Act.

Police appealed for witnesses following a brutal brick attack on a 22-year-old lone woman on West Park Drive. The victim was attacked in the early hours of Saturday, July 27, as she made her way home from a party chatting to her boyfriend on a mobile phone.

AUGUST

The family of 21-year-old soldier, Lance Corporal Derek Joseph McGregor, found dead at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, called for a public inquiry into his death which was labelled the 13th army suicide since 1997.

A disabled Cumbrian man was named as one of two men who terrorised banks in Blackpool and Cleveleys by holding up cashiers with a fake gun. Alan Moore, 47, from Keswick, would leave his walking stick by the door before pulling the replica arms on cashiers and demanding money.

Police urged young women to avoid walking home alone after a second attack on a lone woman who was hit over the head with a blunt object (later revealed to be a butchers' steel).

The 19-year-old victim had been walking home from a nightclub at around 3am on Friday, August 22, when she was attacked on Newton Drive. She had also been using a mobile phone at the time of the attack.

Around 400 pupils and 40 staff at Devonshire Road Junior School were forced to an alternative site at Grange Park after arsonists burnt the school down.

SEPTEMBER

The Fylde's new lifeboat chief was called into action just 10 minutes after taking up.

Blue comic, Jim Davidson, infuriated Blackpool tourism bosses by claiming that 'an atomic bomb could be dropped on the resort' without hurting anyone!

The Weeton based 1st Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets set off to bolster British forces in Iraq.

Blackpool starlet, Emma Dane, vowed to follow her pop star dream even after failing to win enough public support to reach the Pop Idol final.

And council bosses gave the go-ahead for a change in planning rules which would allow Blackpool's historic Winter Gardens to become a resort casino.

OCTOBER

Adventurer David Hempleman-Adams ended his transatlantic balloon crossing with a lift home from his crash site in Stalmine, courtesy of kind-hearted local man, Phil Gavin.

Blackpool became Tory town for a week with the arrival of the Conservative conference in the Winter Gardens. Ian Duncan Smith's last stand hit the headlines, while Tory chairman, Theresa May, admitted the party could be tempted to dump the town.

There was sadness this month as one of the area's most popular and well-respected residents, coroner Samuel Lee, passed away at the age of just 63. His old friend, Sir Richard Henriques, summed up the attitude of many when he said that Mr Lee should have been honoured by the Queen.

The first steps on a long road were taken when work started on the redevelopment of South Promenade, the first stage in the realisation of Blackpool's Masterplan.

The BLESMA boys emulated the calendar girls as men from the Blind and Limbless Ex-Serviceman's Association donned women's clothing for a fun calendar.

A newlywed Blackpool couple's dream honeymoon was wrecked when French immigration officials put them on a plane home because of the man's Kenyan passport.

NOVEMBER

The row over the much-needed Cleveleys tram shelter rumbled on, with one pensioner telling us 'I'd build it myself if I were younger.'

Soccer star Wayne Rooney became the latest big name to eye up a home in Lytham.

Scotland international, Barry Ferguson, also revealed he was planning a move to the resort.

The Fylde remembered, with many services taking place across the area to mark Remembrance Day.

Blackpool Transport's profits hit the £1 million mark -- but the company faced accusations that its financial success came because it dropped less popular routes.

There was tragedy on the day of the rugby world cup final, as Fleetwood man, Anthony Owers, fell to his death from a pier in Brighton.

And there were celebrations in Lytham at the unveiling of a new statue of a 19th century Shrimper.

DECEMBER

The month started tragically, with a horrific trike accident that left tragic bride-to-be, Dawn Auty, so badly injured that both her legs had to be amputated.

The proposed 'City of the Fylde' moved one step closer as two options for the future of the area's local government were unveiled.

Lytham and St Annes could join with Blackpool or become part of a massive Lancashire council.

11-year-old Tom Coyle got his hands on the Carling Cup.

The great-grandson of former Football League secretary, Alan Hardaker, will also present the man-of-the-match award at next year's Cardiff final.

Local groups pledged to keep supporting the Blackpool-based Air Ambulance after the life-saving service warned that it is to lose its main sponsor.

And more than 100 years of history was threatened as Wyre Council decided to pull the plug on funding for the Knott End ferry in the near future.