THERE are just six days to go before Lee Le Clercq, who has spent six years playing right-hand man to the Preston's leading citizen, moves on.

And the job of mayor's secretary has been almost child's play for the man who once held the huge responsibility of issuing the six minute warning!

Lee, who leaves Preston Borough Council next Friday, used to be an air traffic controller in the RAF and at one stage held the security of the nation in his palm.

His job was to keep constant watch on the skies at the Filingdales base in North Yorkshire, to make sure no Russian nuclear bombs were heading our way.

He even had to have a toilet next door so that he didn't miss anything!

"I had to tell the Cabinet Office here and the headquarters of Space Command in Colorado in USA, that the Russians are coming.

"Once the warning came in, I had 60 seconds to verify it and then I had to inform the authorities."

Luckily Lee never had to make that call, but his office was also responsible for monitoring the 28,000 items of debris floating about in space - including a glove belonging to Neil Armstrong!

"While I was there in 1991," he said: "We actually halted a shuttle launch because of space debris that was going to be in the way of the its path."

Lee, from Melling, near Lancaster, is leaving to take up a position as regional secretary with the Brewers' and Licensed Retailers' Association in Bolton.

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