THE Government's strategy for dealing with the millennium bug has been blasted by a leading council officer.

John Kirk, Director (Services) of Pendle Council, says a report on how councils are dealing with potential problems is another example of unnecessary hype about the bug which could hit computers on millennium eve.

The report published by the Action 2000 group on behalf of the Government employed a traffic light system of grading councils over how they are coping.

Red signifies a severe risk of disruption with little time to put things right, amber means things are progressing on schedule but things still need to be done and blue means everything has been done.

Most councils in Lancashire have been awarded amber status, as has Lancashire Constabulary.

But Mr Kirk asked: "Has the Government nothing better to do? Publishing a report at this time of year is no good at all. Budgets have been set and if councils had been given a bad report they'd have had no time to sort things out.

"This whole millennium business is a man-made con and a fuss about nothing. An industry has been made out of it and the Government are encouraging it."

However, other council officials welcomed the report. A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "We have been preparing to deal with potential problems to do with the millennium bug for a long time and a number of reports have been presented to councillors.

"We are pleased with the results of this report although we will continue to work to make sure there are no problems."

Rossendale Council leader Alan Fishwick said: "A lot has been done to make sure there are no problems when it comes to the millennium and our systems will be OK.

"The other thing we have to prepare for is other organisations whose preparations may not have been as good as our own."

The only council in Lancashire to be awarded the top rank blue status was Chorley. No councils were given red status.

Deputy chief constable Paul Stephenson of Lancashire Police also welcomed the report which put the force on amber.

He said: "The millennium weekend in particular will be very challenging for all of us with extra demand being placed on services, but we are confident of being able to maintain our core services.

"There will be things the public can do to help us avoid unnecessary pressure and we will be issuing advice to every household in November."

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