Who the hell do these people think they are?

Local councillors, along with Lancashire County Council – people who know the area and its needs best – had identified a site in Every Street for the new school, which is needed because of growing pupil numbers.

But the demolition of a large number of properties to make way for the new school has upset English Heritage, whose role it is to protect historical structures – hence the objections.

Not surprisingly, the move has provoked anger locally, as the school has to built by September because of the demand for places.

The opposition of English Heritage – people with little or no knowledge of the requirements of Whitefield residents – has probably scuppered all hope of that.

Let Mr Pendle make one thing clear.

He does not live in Whitefield – or even in Nelson for that matter – and so has no axe to grind personally.

But he would have thought that even a group interested in conservation such as English Heritage would, when it comes to making a decision on which is more important – the preservation of a group of Victorian terraced houses or the primary education of hundreds of children – might just decide it was the latter.

And while he is on the subject, he wonders how many of these objectors live in houses similar to the ones they are seeking to preserve.

He would guess it would be only a tiny handful at most.


READING a recent letter in a national newspaper regarding the increasingly irritating use of the term "chair" in place of chairman, Mr Pendle's memories were stirred to a time when its usage was less common than it is today.

The letter, from a newly-appointed chairman of school governors in Lytham, said the new appointee wished to be called chairman and not chair as he was neither an inanimate object nor did he enjoy being sat upon.

Exactly the same argument was used in a Pendle Council meeting some years ago when Coun. Doris Haigh rebuked Coun. Frank Clifford when he addressed her as "chair" in a debate.

The use of the term "chair" is, in Mr Pendle's eyes, even more annoying than those politically correct words chairwoman and, even worse, chairperson.

These have been dreamed up by people, as Mr Pendle has said so many times before, who have nothing better to do, who see offence where there is none.

How sad their lives must be.