One told the tale of a 21-year-old single mum who was fined £700 for putting out her recycled rubbish on the wrong day.

And the other told how an 18-year-old man who caused a road accident in which a man died was fined just £85.

Where is the justice and the fairness in that?

Is a misplaced wheelie bin really worthy of a greater fine than the life of an innocent driver?

Not in Mr Pendle's eyes it isn't – and his friends in one of his watering holes couldn't believe what they were reading either.


IF having a county court in Nelson is that important, why has it taken councillors so long to start talking about it?

Mr Pendle has never heard our elected friends debating the future of the court in all his 34 years with this newspaper – until its proposed closure was brought before them last week.

The court is used on just three days a month, and therefore its closure sounds a perfectly sensible move to Mr Pendle.

One town councillor, in fact, thought it was already closed.

But Coun. Sonia Robinson says questions need to be asked about why the service in Nelson has been allowed to run down, and argues that to close the court will cause inconvenience to local people.

But why are councillors only asking these questions now?

Did none of them know what was going on?

Did none of them realise the court's future was at risk?

And if the county court in Nelson is so important to the town, why has this newspaper not been inundated with telephone calls, letters and emails demanding that it be kept open?


DESPITE the law which bans people using hand-held mobile telephones while driving, hundreds of people still do this every day, putting themselves and other road users at risk.

But it is not just car and van drivers who act in this reckless, irresponsible manner.

News reached Mr Pendle the other day from a colleague who had spotted a school bus driver in Colne holding his precious mobile in one hand, chuntering away at 19 to the dozen about some trivial inconsequential matter while attempting to control his bus with the other.

The thoughts of the possible consequences of such an action bring a shudder to Mr Pendle's spine.

This mindless moron should be hounded down, given a hefty fine and booted out of his job before he causes an accident and innocent children are killed or seriously injured as a result of his crass stupidity.