THE Lancashire Evening Telegraph has come up with an innovative way to keep readers up-to-date with the news.

Blackburn with Darwen Council recently tightened up the rules on shop displays - affecting newsagents who use A-boards outside their shops to advertise what is in the Evening Telegraph.

So the paper's Newspaper Sales and Marketing manager Roger Edworthy teamed up with a company in West Yorkshire to avoid newsagents getting in trouble with the council.

The solution was to fix lightweight Perspex A-boards to the front of shops so that they are not an obstacle to pedestrians. A limited number of the new A-boards have already been fitted to shops and more are planned.

But Mr Edworthy says less than half the shops in the borough will be fitted with the new boards because there is not enough space on their shop fronts.

He said: "This is the first example of anything like this in the country and it is the ideal way to allow us to get our daily message to our readers.

"Newsagents won't have to scale ladders to get at the A-boards. Instead, they will be issued with a pole with which to bring the boards to the ground so that a new message can be put in.

"The downside is that a lot of shops don't have the space on their shop fronts to have them fitted."

Blackburn with Darwen Council has come in for severe criticism from traders for stringently imposing the ban on A-boards.

Chamber of Trade representatives say they too want to discuss alternatives to A-boards with the council.

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