AT last the rotten tooth in East Lancashire's fair face is set to be pulled.

For the eyesore of the derelict 350ft-high chimney of the former Huncoat power station is to be blasted away next week after scarring the skyline and marring the landscape for years.

A long-running legal wrangle over ownership of the site kept this ugly monster in situ for far too long.

This chimney was not just an eyesore, but a bad advertisement that, quite falsely, gave the region a deadbeat, run-down look.

So be sure that when the demolition men fire the dynamite on Monday to send it crashing, our cheers are likely to be louder than the bang.

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