EAST LANCASHIRE enterprise earns two well-deserved pats on the back - for bright ideas that save lives and cut crime.

The first is the Battery Bob project, the brainwave of Nelson fire station sub-officer Bob Parkin, which encourages householders to test their smoke alarms on the first day of every month and to replace the batteries each New Year's Day.

That way, the tragedy of lives being lost because alarms are not working - brought home by two such fatal fires in Lancashire this year - need never happen. Now, the Home Office is looking at Bob's scheme, with a view to introducing it nationwide.

Then, there is the success of the crime-cracking Hyndburn Partnership - the public, private and voluntary bodies working together to combat the borough's social and economic problems.

Their initiatives, which include a town centre made safer by closed-circuit TV cameras and patrols by special safety wardens, have slashed the cost of crime by 78 per cent in a year.

Now, quite rightly, the Partnership is short-listed for a national crime prevention and community safety award.

Well done, both.

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