ARTFUL DODGERS: An all-out campaign is to be mounted by Bury Council to deliver a sharp lesson to Bury's rent dodgers who owe almost £100,000 in arrears.

The Director of Housing was strongly urged to take "all necessary steps" to reduce the deficit including the appointment of a bailiff to seize goods from defaulters.

OLD STORY: Bury's police chief warned elderly people to be on their guard for con-men at their doors after bogus callers tricked £200 out of a 92-year-old widower from Chesham Road, Bury, and a woman of 62 from Rochdale Road, Bury.

"It is the old story of people letting callers into their homes without first checking their identities," said Chief Supt Frank Tomlinson.

CARNIVAL TIME: Nearly 30,000 people lined the route to watch the annual Bury Lions Carnival. The long procession of colourful floats weaved through the town centre for more than an hour en route to the carnival ground at Clarence Park.

BAD SPORTS: An application by the Co-operative Wholesale Society to convert an old disused works canteen in Morris Street, Radcliffe, into a sports centre was refused by Bury Council following objections from local residents.

JOB LOT: Situations vacant this week included the need for two experienced "back tenters", a "semi-skilled radial arm driller", an "assistant winder overlooker" and an "inside manager".