Just like the derelict Spring Bank/Groves Hotel in Manchester Road, its condition creates an impression of a town that has seen better days – and so it is good to see that something is going to be done about it.

As we reported last week, Pendle Council is going to knock the derelict building down and incorporate the site into the much-acclaimed Hub redevelopment of that part of town.

No decision has yet been made on what will be put there – but anything will be an improvement on the shabby structure the Regent has become.

All that the council needs to do now is get the owners of the Spring Bank, who have pledged many times to carry out the much-needed repairs to the property, to put their money where their mouths are and we should start to see a much brighter approach to Nelson from both east and west along the main road.


PEOPLE who are in prison in this country have not been allowed to vote since the Forfeiture Act of 1870 decreed the loss of the right to vote should be a part of their punishment.

But all that is set to change – not through a decision made by our MPs, but because unelected foreign officials in faraway Brussels have said so.

Once again, the farce that is the European Court of Human Rights has said thousands of inmates serving sentences of less than four years should get the vote.

And our Government has not had the guts to stand up to them.

Instead, it weakly caved in without asking the British public for their opinion.

If they had, there is little doubt that they would have told the European judges where they could put their proposals.


LAST week, we reported on problems caused outside schools by people parking on yellow zigzag lines.

Neighbourhood police officers asked drivers to desist from this practice – but they are wasting their time.

The simple fact is that people will park on the restricted areas as they know the chances are they will get away with it – and also because they are too lazy to park a short distance away and walk to or from the school with their children.

No matter that acting in this manner is, as an officer said last week, an accident waiting to happen.

It's yet another example of the "I'm all right, Jack" attitude so prevalent in society today – and sadly, there is little that can be done to stop people acting any differently.