KILLJOY councillors are making sure knickers will never be seen again on Bury's streets.

And public buildings will never again be festooned with bras, knickers and boxer shorts!

Community services chiefs have vowed to have more control of the May festival which caused so much controversy last year.

The outrage was caused by the the antics of French troupe Cacahuete. They wandered around the town in their underwear and draped thousands of knickers, bras and boxer shorts on buildings and washing lines.

Brief Encounter, as it was called, was a piece of street theatre designed to challenge ideas of contamination. It ran as a special one-off event in May, after the main Streets Ahead festival.

At the time the then deputy mayor, Councillor Roy Walker, said a similar performance would be prosecuted for offensive behaviour.

He elaborated on the "horrible" spectacle at Wednesday's education and community services committee meeting.

"This was thrust at you in cafes and art galleries," he said. "You had no choice about it and it was horrible." Father Anthony Lawton, priest at St Marie's in Bury town centre and the Roman Catholic representative on the committee, demanded assurances that it never be repeated. But chief education officer Mr Harold Williams said full details of the event had not been known in advance.

From now on, cultural services officers will be closely involved in the festival's organisation and act as a watchdog on the "quality and appropriateness" of acts.

Bury has been involved in Greater Manchester's month-long free cultural festival since 1996, when the first festival took place on the May Day Bank Holiday. It attracted an estimated 12,000 people into the town centre.

In 1997, a torrential downpour on the Bank Holiday meant that Bury's festival was effectively cancelled. Ironically, Cacahuete, was provided last year as "compensation" for the previous year's washout.

Committee chairman Councillor Andrea Hughes said: "It was regrettable, but I think it is important to try and celebrate the more positive aspects of last year's festival."

These included Bury Youth Service and Bury College collaborating on a banner-making project, an environmental fair in Kay Gardens, theatre companies, street entertainers, musicians and clowns.

The committee agreed to give local support to the festival for 1999 and 2000 and is expected to provide around £8,000 towards its costs.

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