HOUSE CLEARANCE: Two blocks of terraced houses off Heywood Street, Bury, were declared a clearance area following a ceiling collapse that trapped one of the occupants as he lay in bed. The houses, number 4 to 28 Nuttall Street and 1 to 31 Oxford Street, had been monitored for some years by the council's building inspectors because of serious bulges in the walls of several houses towards the middle of the two rows. The condition of the properties deteriorated so rapidly that the council was forced to take emergency steps to deal with them. SHY AND RETIRING: The Job Swap scheme, enabling workers to retire a year early and give their jobs to the unemployed, got off to a slow start in Bury. Since it was launched on January 3 only a handful of people had applied to the town's employment office to take part.

HUNGRY HOUND: After snatching a pound note from a customer at a hot dog stand in Bury, a man ran off with the cash but was later caught by police attempting to buy himself a hot dog at the same stand.

LACK OF PAPER WORK: A firm long established in Tottington was to close with the total work force of 43 losing their jobs. World recession in the paper industry was being blamed for the winding down of paper-making machinery manufacturers Hargreaves and Jennings Ltd.

OUT OF ORDERS: Whitbread tenants in Bury joined in the sanctions against the brewery over recent price rises in their pubs. Along with their counterparts in Bolton, Blackburn and other west Pennine towns, the Bury area licensees were angry that the cost of a pint of beer had been pushed up by two pence since the beginning of January.