IT MAY be a line from a libretto written nearly half a century ago, but the question is as good as ever today..."If you don't have a dream, how you going to have a dream come true?"

And that is the positive way of thinking that emerged excitingly from the special "Developing A Vision for East Lancashire in 2020" conference which was filled with inspiring ideas for our region in the new millennium.

A University of East Lancashire, an Olympic-size swimming pool, faster and better public transport, even free electric cars - and much more - are all projects that form part of the vision of life in East Lancashire in 22 years' time.

But this was not just an exercise in looking to the future, it was the commencement of an important campaign to make our region a place where people want to stay, where people will want to come, where they can prosper and so that East Lancashire launches itself into the next millennium with goals and bold projects that will help it to achieve all of that.

Encouragingly, it was a campaign that got under way with support from right across our region - from councillors, business leaders, health chiefs, education chiefs and environmental campaigners.

There was also notable - and radical - input from today's teenagers, the generation which will live that dream and may see it become reality.

And the essence of this drive is one of making East Lancashire a viable entity in its own right which, as a region with a population of 500,000, can equal the country's major cities in terms of opportunity for education, employment, health and recreation.

Some of the ambitions that were attached yesterday to that vital concept were massive - extending Manchester's hugely-successful tram system from Bury to Accrington, for instance; and the development of a new university, either from the existing colleges or from scratch. Ideas of this scale will inevitably attract the doubters and deter the fainthearted.

Indeed, the government supplied just such a dismal jimmy in the form of Baron Isherwood, the director of its regeneration group for the North West.

Do not raise your hopes too high - the money for such developments may not be available, he warned.

But while sober caution must be an aspect of the government's outlook, it does not have a duty to pour cold water on ambition, drive and self-help - which is what is inspiring this campaign for East Lancashire's future.

It was disappointing to hear a servant of a Government which trumpets innovation and initiative being so negative after a day of so much enthusiasm.

And he's in charge of regeneration?

But the achievers and survivors - those who have always inspired East Lancashire's dynamism - are not daunted by big ideas.

Rather, they are the generators of them - it was this area which was a major power during the industrial revolution, for instance.

Nor are they day-dreamers when they aim high, for they provide goals for us all to work toward as this 2020 initiative takes off and welcomes the whole community to come on board.

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