PEOPLE flocked into Bury over the May holiday to celebrate its Streets Ahead 'entertainment' which the crowds apparently loved. I thank the Lord that I am not one of the crowd!

While some of the entertainment was entertaining, other sections were coarse, vulgar, and a disgrace to the entire Borough, and whoever organised this event, or was associated with it in any way, should be horse-whipped - publicly!

I'm not by any means a prude, but can anyone believe that a naked man's body - and backside - covered in foodstuffs is entertainment? And does a half-naked man with a wine tap in his genital area qualify as a street entertainer? I doubt it.

Any other time and they'd probably have been arrested, but that's what Bury's theatrical boffins offered its May holiday shoppers, and all I have to say on the subject is that if it takes this sort of vulgarity to draw crowds and keep the town's shops open, it's time to give up.

On a more serious note, we are currently seeing on television road safety advertisements featuring video shots of children who, regrettably, have been killed on our roads.

I hope they do the job - but I doubt whether parents on several estates in various parts of the Borough are taking any notice at all.

Whenever I drive into these areas they're teeming with youngsters of all ages - toddlers included - happily playing in the road and completely oblivious to the fact that just one speeding car - and I've seen cars travelling faster than they should on the narrowest of roads - is all it takes to end their innocent lives.

Parents, incidentally, are nowhere in sight. The vast majority of motorists who know these areas do kill their speed, but this complete lack of parental responsibility means that accidents in this Borough are waiting to happen.

And please, mums and dads, don't write to say your children have nowhere to play.

You've all got front and back gardens where they can play in complete safety, and frankly your toddlers are better off treading down your hollyhocks than they are riding little tricycles on the road outside.

But if you must have 'em playing on the road, be there with them and show a bit of responsibility!

And incidentally, one thing that really makes me go cold is to see mums with prams - and they all do it - crossing our roads and pushing out their prams first!

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