This week, with NIKKI PENNEY, chairman of Lancashire County Council

HOLIDAY: Squires Gate Holiday Camp at Blackpool. My mum and dad used to transport us there by motorbike and sidecar. Plenty of fresh air and fun!

HOME: A prefab in Hull. It was built as cheap housing during the war and it was very cold and draughty. But I lived there until I got maried when I was 21.

JOB: With Hull Corporation's telephone exchange. It was the only public exchange in the country and while everyone else had to pay 4d a call the people of Hull only had to pay 2d. Everybody had a phone because they were allowed 102 free calls every quarter!

CAR: A Triumph Roadster Coupe. It had been built in 1936 and my dad bought it for me cheap. It was yellow with wonderful dinner-plate headlamps and a windscreen you could wind open.

AMBITION: To improve conditions for the children of Skerton, in Lancaster, which was a deprived area with lots of old terrace houses.

HERO/HEROINE: Mary Seacole, a writer who did much to champion women in the workplace.

PET: A feral cat who turned up on our doorstep one day in a terrible mess and full of fleas. He looked as if he had been in the wars so long I called him Nicaragua. He only died recently.

RECORD: Cathy's Clown by the Everly Brothers. I even remember there was song called Always It's You on the other side.