WELL done, Burnley Council, in landing £1.7million of National Lottery money. Their imaginative scheme to mark the millennium really is a winner...a million new trees and with every one of the town's children having the chance to plant one of their own.

Clearly, the Millennium Commission was impressed by this unique bid - as they awarded the £3.5million forest project not just half the funding, but also slightly more than Burnley bid for.

And what a worthy cause it is.

Not only does it mark the millennium fittingly, it will do so lastingly for generations to come.

And not only will Burnley, presently with only three per cent of its space devoted to woodland, become green as never before, the townsfolk will, through the direct involvement of its children in the scheme, be given a special sense of ownership of this forest for the future.

A better and more encouraging way of celebrating the millennium is hard to imagine and, certainly, Burnley's grant will return much greater pleasure and value for money than the outrageous gifts of lottery millions to such as the purchase of the Churchill papers or the subsidy of opera for the well-heeled.

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