COMPUTER experts in East Lancashire are confident that their systems won't be thrown into chaos tomorrow - February 29.

There are fears that Leap Year's extra day could affect computer systems in a similar way to the threat the Millennium bug posed.

Some older computers and electronic equipment are unable to recognise dates in the year 2000.

But hospitals, councils and businesses in East Lancashire are hoping the day will pass without any problems.

No special preparations are being made at Blackburn hospitals trust but IT staff will be on a "state of watchfulness", according to director of corporate development Rob Bellingham.

"We're not expecting any problems. The issue over February 29 was part of the work we did in preparation for the millennium bug. "We didn't have any problems over the millennium so we aren't expecting any on Tuesday."

The only major problems reported in East Lancashire over the new millennium were at Oswaldtwistle town hall where council tax payments were affected by computer glitches. But bosses at Hyndburn Borough Council said they didn't expect a repeat of the problem.

"We have recently reviewed our systems and we are confident that February 29 will not pose a problem," said a spokesman.

Jane Allder, assistant director of digital technology at Blackburn with Darwen Council said they were confident the day would pass without disruption to systems.

"It is true that some systems did not recogise this year as a leap year but when we were doing testing for the millennium bug we also tested for February 29."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.