FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 19 - 25 FEBRUARY 1974
This week's many stories include the St Helens grandmother fighting next week's general election, the award-winning nuclear detectives in their Eccleston bunker, the bitter row over a slum housing survey, a call to end half-day closing in St Helens and the boy blind in one eye that credited a faith healer with improving his sight.
We begin on the 19th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the new St Helens District Council – that was currently operating in shadow form – had decided that the St Helens Show would take place again in July. There had been speculation that the 3-day Sherdley Park extravaganza might be affected by the local government reorganisation. But the show's organiser, Ray Wright, said it would be business as usual.
At a meeting of Rainford Council's Management Committee on the 19th, the controversy over the Village Hall being used by outside businesses reared its head again. Local organisations often used such firms to sell goods in the hall for which they received a commission. But shopkeepers with rates bills to pay complained that these sellers from outside Rainford were taking away their business.
The Management Committee were told by Ken Isherwood, the Clerk to the council, that the Rainford Guides Parents and Supporters Club wanted the hall for such a sale to raise money towards their building fund. The matter was so controversial that the committee decided to defer a decision until the next full meeting of the council. Later, Freda Barton, the secretary of the club, said: "We have held these sales before, as we are trying to raise money for a hall for the guides in Rainford. But we don't want to offend local shopkeepers, so I decided to write to the Clerk asking about the situation."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 22nd and predicted the end of half-day closing in the town after the local Chamber of Trade had surveyed its members on the subject. A 3 to 2 majority were in favour of a six-day trading week and the Chamber had now applied to St Helens Council for their support. Half-day closing had been introduced in the town in 1884. That was after a 30-year-long campaign had called for shop staff – who then worked extremely long hours – to be given some time off.
In 1960 the Shop Act formally restricted trading to a maximum of 5½ days a week and so a byelaw would need to be passed to rescind that section of the Act. In fact many town centre shops in St Helens closed for a full day during the week and the Chamber was keen to point out that staff would not need to work an extra day as a rota system would be used instead.
The move to 6-day-a-week shopping was gaining ground in other towns and cities. Richard Hilary, the relief manager at Woolworths in St Helens (pictured above), said the firm was very much in favour of the change and already observed it in some of their other stores: "Nowadays a lot of people work shifts or odd hours, and I think six-day trading should be available to the public because of this." However, other traders – including the St Helens Market Traders Association – needed to be consulted on the matter. And if St Helens Council was in favour it was expected that it could still take over a year before the move came into effect.
Terence Lennon was furious with Jeremy Thorpe this week. The boss of the St Helens supermarket and off-licence chain had a letter published in the Reporter attacking the Liberal Party leader's recent claim that leading retail food firms made 25% pre-tax profits. Lennon said that was "grossly and utterly untrue" as they worked on a profit of only 4%.
The new St Helens District or Metropolitan District Council was still six weeks away from officially taking over from the old St Helens County Borough Council. The much larger authority would take in Rainford, Newton, Haydock, Eccleston etc. and its complexities meant preparations had been underway for some time with a kind of shadow operation in place. That was, at times, causing some concern and this week's lead story in the Reporter described a "bitter row" over what was claimed as a secret survey that public health inspectors had carried out.
Officials were said to have motored around St Helens, Rainford, Billinge, Haydock and Newton inspecting the outsides of houses to determine the number of potentially unfit homes for slum clearance. Their act had infuriated councillors in Rainford, who believed that the new council had secret plans to demolish large numbers of perfectly good homes in the village.
At a meeting of the village's Town Planning Committee, its chairman Ron Jones claimed that up to 200 homes could come down. And Councillor Tony Brown said angrily: "If they demolish here – they will have to do it elsewhere. And they won't get away with it." And in Newton an official told the Reporter that there had already been a major row over the secret survey.
A general election would be taking place next week and for what was believed to be the very first time, the contest would be a four-cornered fight in St Helens. Leslie Spriggs was hoping to be re-elected as the town's Labour MP. But as well as Liberal and Conservative opponents, Mr Spriggs had an Independent Labour candidate to defeat. She was grandmother May Pike of Cedar Street in St Helens who told the Reporter that she'd got fed up with squabbling politicians:
"We've had six years of Labour rule and four years of the Conservatives and they both seem most concerned about scoring points off each other. I used to run a newsagent's shop. When I was behind the counter people were always complaining about how much tax they had to pay and the prices of everything. It didn't seem to me that either party had done much for them.
"I've always been a keen armchair politician and I care a lot for ordinary working people because I was brought up as one of them. I got so angry and frustrated at the way other people were handling things for them that in the end I decided I could do better myself. So I'm making a stand. I'm a Labour candidate but I won't have party ties and I'll speak my mind."
The 61-year-old with nine grandchildren had a campaign staff of about 21 operating round the town from her sister's Brynn Street home, which was serving as her campaign HQ. "I wouldn't like to forecast which way it will go," said Mrs Pike. "But I'm sure I'll at least get an eighth of the vote and get my £150 deposit back."
A Prescot boy, who had been virtually blind in one eye since birth, told the Reporter that he could now see through it to watch television after visiting a faith healer. Ian Price of New Cross Street had a month ago been taken by his grandparents to see Melvin Banks at the Mission Hall in Holt Lane, Rainhill. The 10-year-old told the Reporter: "He put his hands on my head, and said prayers. My eye has been getting better since." A year earlier an optician had examined Ian's eye and described his vision as virtually nil.
What particularly upset the boy was being told he could never become a footballer, as Ian was a keen goalkeeper. However, a letter from Gordon Banks, the England keeper who lost an eye in a car accident, had cheered him up. The boy's mother, Maureen Price, said: "The ones we have to thank are my mother and father-in-law. They had the faith in the healer."
The Reporter also described how ten "nuclear detectives" would be receiving a prize for being the most efficient crew in the Western sector. The men were all members of the Royal Observer Corps and for many years had worked underground at a secret bunker in Eccleston. Their job would only become real in the event of nuclear war when they would be tasked with measuring radioactive fall-out and pass it on to what was described as a "huge underground nerve centre" in Preston.
On the 24th 'Fist of Fury' starring Bruce Lee began a week's screening at the Capitol. Its billing in the Reporter called it "The Most Dangerous Film Ever!!!". Meanwhile, the ABC Savoy was showing 'Carry On Girls', with Sid James, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor etc.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the result of the General Election in St Helens, a new library is planned for Blackbrook, complaints that Dentons Green Lane had become a danger zone and the preservation plans for four historic Eccleston cottages.
We begin on the 19th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the new St Helens District Council – that was currently operating in shadow form – had decided that the St Helens Show would take place again in July. There had been speculation that the 3-day Sherdley Park extravaganza might be affected by the local government reorganisation. But the show's organiser, Ray Wright, said it would be business as usual.
At a meeting of Rainford Council's Management Committee on the 19th, the controversy over the Village Hall being used by outside businesses reared its head again. Local organisations often used such firms to sell goods in the hall for which they received a commission. But shopkeepers with rates bills to pay complained that these sellers from outside Rainford were taking away their business.
The Management Committee were told by Ken Isherwood, the Clerk to the council, that the Rainford Guides Parents and Supporters Club wanted the hall for such a sale to raise money towards their building fund. The matter was so controversial that the committee decided to defer a decision until the next full meeting of the council. Later, Freda Barton, the secretary of the club, said: "We have held these sales before, as we are trying to raise money for a hall for the guides in Rainford. But we don't want to offend local shopkeepers, so I decided to write to the Clerk asking about the situation."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 22nd and predicted the end of half-day closing in the town after the local Chamber of Trade had surveyed its members on the subject. A 3 to 2 majority were in favour of a six-day trading week and the Chamber had now applied to St Helens Council for their support. Half-day closing had been introduced in the town in 1884. That was after a 30-year-long campaign had called for shop staff – who then worked extremely long hours – to be given some time off.
In 1960 the Shop Act formally restricted trading to a maximum of 5½ days a week and so a byelaw would need to be passed to rescind that section of the Act. In fact many town centre shops in St Helens closed for a full day during the week and the Chamber was keen to point out that staff would not need to work an extra day as a rota system would be used instead.
Terence Lennon was furious with Jeremy Thorpe this week. The boss of the St Helens supermarket and off-licence chain had a letter published in the Reporter attacking the Liberal Party leader's recent claim that leading retail food firms made 25% pre-tax profits. Lennon said that was "grossly and utterly untrue" as they worked on a profit of only 4%.
The new St Helens District or Metropolitan District Council was still six weeks away from officially taking over from the old St Helens County Borough Council. The much larger authority would take in Rainford, Newton, Haydock, Eccleston etc. and its complexities meant preparations had been underway for some time with a kind of shadow operation in place. That was, at times, causing some concern and this week's lead story in the Reporter described a "bitter row" over what was claimed as a secret survey that public health inspectors had carried out.
Officials were said to have motored around St Helens, Rainford, Billinge, Haydock and Newton inspecting the outsides of houses to determine the number of potentially unfit homes for slum clearance. Their act had infuriated councillors in Rainford, who believed that the new council had secret plans to demolish large numbers of perfectly good homes in the village.
At a meeting of the village's Town Planning Committee, its chairman Ron Jones claimed that up to 200 homes could come down. And Councillor Tony Brown said angrily: "If they demolish here – they will have to do it elsewhere. And they won't get away with it." And in Newton an official told the Reporter that there had already been a major row over the secret survey.
A general election would be taking place next week and for what was believed to be the very first time, the contest would be a four-cornered fight in St Helens. Leslie Spriggs was hoping to be re-elected as the town's Labour MP. But as well as Liberal and Conservative opponents, Mr Spriggs had an Independent Labour candidate to defeat. She was grandmother May Pike of Cedar Street in St Helens who told the Reporter that she'd got fed up with squabbling politicians:
"We've had six years of Labour rule and four years of the Conservatives and they both seem most concerned about scoring points off each other. I used to run a newsagent's shop. When I was behind the counter people were always complaining about how much tax they had to pay and the prices of everything. It didn't seem to me that either party had done much for them.
"I've always been a keen armchair politician and I care a lot for ordinary working people because I was brought up as one of them. I got so angry and frustrated at the way other people were handling things for them that in the end I decided I could do better myself. So I'm making a stand. I'm a Labour candidate but I won't have party ties and I'll speak my mind."
The 61-year-old with nine grandchildren had a campaign staff of about 21 operating round the town from her sister's Brynn Street home, which was serving as her campaign HQ. "I wouldn't like to forecast which way it will go," said Mrs Pike. "But I'm sure I'll at least get an eighth of the vote and get my £150 deposit back."
A Prescot boy, who had been virtually blind in one eye since birth, told the Reporter that he could now see through it to watch television after visiting a faith healer. Ian Price of New Cross Street had a month ago been taken by his grandparents to see Melvin Banks at the Mission Hall in Holt Lane, Rainhill. The 10-year-old told the Reporter: "He put his hands on my head, and said prayers. My eye has been getting better since." A year earlier an optician had examined Ian's eye and described his vision as virtually nil.
What particularly upset the boy was being told he could never become a footballer, as Ian was a keen goalkeeper. However, a letter from Gordon Banks, the England keeper who lost an eye in a car accident, had cheered him up. The boy's mother, Maureen Price, said: "The ones we have to thank are my mother and father-in-law. They had the faith in the healer."
The Reporter also described how ten "nuclear detectives" would be receiving a prize for being the most efficient crew in the Western sector. The men were all members of the Royal Observer Corps and for many years had worked underground at a secret bunker in Eccleston. Their job would only become real in the event of nuclear war when they would be tasked with measuring radioactive fall-out and pass it on to what was described as a "huge underground nerve centre" in Preston.
On the 24th 'Fist of Fury' starring Bruce Lee began a week's screening at the Capitol. Its billing in the Reporter called it "The Most Dangerous Film Ever!!!". Meanwhile, the ABC Savoy was showing 'Carry On Girls', with Sid James, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor etc.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the result of the General Election in St Helens, a new library is planned for Blackbrook, complaints that Dentons Green Lane had become a danger zone and the preservation plans for four historic Eccleston cottages.
This week's many stories include the St Helens grandmother fighting next week's general election, the award-winning nuclear detectives in their Eccleston bunker, the bitter row over a slum housing survey, a call to end half-day closing in St Helens and the boy blind in one eye that credited a faith healer with improving his sight.
We begin on the 19th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the new St Helens District Council – that was currently operating in shadow form – had decided that the St Helens Show would take place again in July.
There had been speculation that the 3-day Sherdley Park extravaganza might be affected by the local government reorganisation. But the show's organiser, Ray Wright, said it would be business as usual.
At a meeting of Rainford Council's Management Committee on the 19th, the controversy over the Village Hall being used by outside businesses reared its head again.
Local organisations often used such firms to sell goods in the hall for which they received a commission.
But shopkeepers with rates bills to pay complained that these sellers from outside Rainford were taking away their business.
The Management Committee were told by Ken Isherwood, the Clerk to the council, that the Rainford Guides Parents and Supporters Club wanted the hall for such a sale to raise money towards their building fund.
The matter was so controversial that the committee decided to defer a decision until the next full meeting of the council. Later, Freda Barton, the secretary of the club, said:
"We have held these sales before, as we are trying to raise money for a hall for the guides in Rainford. But we don't want to offend local shopkeepers, so I decided to write to the Clerk asking about the situation."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 22nd and predicted the end of half-day closing in the town after the local Chamber of Trade had surveyed its members on the subject.
A 3 to 2 majority were in favour of a six-day trading week and the Chamber had now applied to St Helens Council for their support.
Half-day closing had been introduced in the town in 1884. That was after a 30-year-long campaign had called for shop staff – who then worked extremely long hours – to be given some time off.
In 1960 the Shop Act formally restricted trading to a maximum of 5½ days a week and so a byelaw would need to be passed to rescind that section of the Act.
In fact many town centre shops in St Helens closed for a full day during the week and the Chamber was keen to point out that staff would not need to work an extra day as a rota system would be used instead.
The move to 6-day-a-week shopping was gaining ground in other towns and cities.
Richard Hilary, the relief manager at Woolworths in St Helens, said the firm was very much in favour of the change and already observed it in some of their other stores:
"Nowadays a lot of people work shifts or odd hours, and I think six-day trading should be available to the public because of this."
However, other traders – including the St Helens Market Traders Association – needed to be consulted on the matter.
And if St Helens Council was in favour it was expected that it could still take over a year before the move came into effect.
Terence Lennon was furious with Jeremy Thorpe this week. The boss of the St Helens supermarket and off-licence chain had a letter published in the Reporter attacking the Liberal Party leader's recent claim that leading retail food firms made 25% pre-tax profits.
Lennon said that was "grossly and utterly untrue" as they worked on a profit of only 4%.
The new St Helens District or Metropolitan District Council was still six weeks away from officially taking over from the old St Helens County Borough Council.
The much larger authority would take in Rainford, Newton, Haydock, Eccleston etc. and its complexities meant preparations had been underway for some time with a kind of shadow operation in place.
That was, at times, causing some concern and this week's lead story in the Reporter described a "bitter row" over what was claimed as a secret survey that public health inspectors had carried out.
Officials were said to have motored around St Helens, Rainford, Billinge, Haydock and Newton inspecting the outsides of houses to determine the number of potentially unfit homes for slum clearance.
Their act had infuriated councillors in Rainford, who believed that the new council had secret plans to demolish large numbers of perfectly good homes in the village.
At a meeting of the village's Town Planning Committee, its chairman Ron Jones claimed that up to 200 homes could come down.
And Councillor Tony Brown said angrily: "If they demolish here – they will have to do it elsewhere. And they won't get away with it."
And in Newton an official told the Reporter that there had already been a major row over the secret survey.
A general election would be taking place next week and for what was believed to be the very first time, the contest would be a four-cornered fight in St Helens.
Leslie Spriggs was hoping to be re-elected as the town's Labour MP. But as well as Liberal and Conservative opponents, Mr Spriggs had an Independent Labour candidate to defeat.
She was grandmother May Pike of Cedar Street in St Helens who told the Reporter that she'd got fed up with squabbling politicians:
"We've had six years of Labour rule and four years of the Conservatives and they both seem most concerned about scoring points off each other.
"I used to run a newsagent's shop. When I was behind the counter people were always complaining about how much tax they had to pay and the prices of everything. It didn't seem to me that either party had done much for them.
"I've always been a keen armchair politician and I care a lot for ordinary working people because I was brought up as one of them.
"I got so angry and frustrated at the way other people were handling things for them that in the end I decided I could do better myself. So I'm making a stand. I'm a Labour candidate but I won't have party ties and I'll speak my mind."
The 61-year-old with nine grandchildren had a campaign staff of about 21 operating round the town from her sister's Brynn Street home, which was serving as her campaign HQ.
"I wouldn't like to forecast which way it will go," said Mrs Pike. "But I'm sure I'll at least get an eighth of the vote and get my £150 deposit back."
A Prescot boy, who had been virtually blind in one eye since birth, told the Reporter that he could now see through it to watch television after visiting a faith healer.
Ian Price of New Cross Street had a month ago been taken by his grandparents to see Melvin Banks at the Mission Hall in Holt Lane, Rainhill.
The 10-year-old told the Reporter: "He put his hands on my head, and said prayers. My eye has been getting better since."
A year earlier an optician had examined Ian's eye and described his vision as virtually nil.
What particularly upset the boy was being told he could never become a footballer, as Ian was a keen goalkeeper.
However, a letter from Gordon Banks, the England keeper who lost an eye in a car accident, had cheered him up.
The boy's mother, Maureen Price, said: "The ones we have to thank are my mother and father-in-law. They had the faith in the healer."
The Reporter also described how ten "nuclear detectives" would be receiving a prize for being the most efficient crew in the Western sector.
The men were all members of the Royal Observer Corps and for many years had worked underground at a secret bunker in Eccleston.
Their job would only become real in the event of nuclear war when they would be tasked with measuring radioactive fall-out and pass it on to what was described as a "huge underground nerve centre" in Preston.
On the 24th 'Fist of Fury' starring Bruce Lee began a week's screening at the Capitol. Its billing in the Reporter called it "The Most Dangerous Film Ever!!!".
Meanwhile, the ABC Savoy was showing 'Carry On Girls', with Sid James, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor etc.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the result of the General Election in St Helens, a new library is planned for Blackbrook, complaints that Dentons Green Lane had become a danger zone and the preservation plans for four historic Eccleston cottages.
We begin on the 19th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the new St Helens District Council – that was currently operating in shadow form – had decided that the St Helens Show would take place again in July.
There had been speculation that the 3-day Sherdley Park extravaganza might be affected by the local government reorganisation. But the show's organiser, Ray Wright, said it would be business as usual.
At a meeting of Rainford Council's Management Committee on the 19th, the controversy over the Village Hall being used by outside businesses reared its head again.
Local organisations often used such firms to sell goods in the hall for which they received a commission.
But shopkeepers with rates bills to pay complained that these sellers from outside Rainford were taking away their business.
The Management Committee were told by Ken Isherwood, the Clerk to the council, that the Rainford Guides Parents and Supporters Club wanted the hall for such a sale to raise money towards their building fund.
The matter was so controversial that the committee decided to defer a decision until the next full meeting of the council. Later, Freda Barton, the secretary of the club, said:
"We have held these sales before, as we are trying to raise money for a hall for the guides in Rainford. But we don't want to offend local shopkeepers, so I decided to write to the Clerk asking about the situation."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 22nd and predicted the end of half-day closing in the town after the local Chamber of Trade had surveyed its members on the subject.
A 3 to 2 majority were in favour of a six-day trading week and the Chamber had now applied to St Helens Council for their support.
Half-day closing had been introduced in the town in 1884. That was after a 30-year-long campaign had called for shop staff – who then worked extremely long hours – to be given some time off.
In 1960 the Shop Act formally restricted trading to a maximum of 5½ days a week and so a byelaw would need to be passed to rescind that section of the Act.
In fact many town centre shops in St Helens closed for a full day during the week and the Chamber was keen to point out that staff would not need to work an extra day as a rota system would be used instead.
The move to 6-day-a-week shopping was gaining ground in other towns and cities.
"Nowadays a lot of people work shifts or odd hours, and I think six-day trading should be available to the public because of this."
However, other traders – including the St Helens Market Traders Association – needed to be consulted on the matter.
And if St Helens Council was in favour it was expected that it could still take over a year before the move came into effect.
Terence Lennon was furious with Jeremy Thorpe this week. The boss of the St Helens supermarket and off-licence chain had a letter published in the Reporter attacking the Liberal Party leader's recent claim that leading retail food firms made 25% pre-tax profits.
Lennon said that was "grossly and utterly untrue" as they worked on a profit of only 4%.
The new St Helens District or Metropolitan District Council was still six weeks away from officially taking over from the old St Helens County Borough Council.
The much larger authority would take in Rainford, Newton, Haydock, Eccleston etc. and its complexities meant preparations had been underway for some time with a kind of shadow operation in place.
That was, at times, causing some concern and this week's lead story in the Reporter described a "bitter row" over what was claimed as a secret survey that public health inspectors had carried out.
Officials were said to have motored around St Helens, Rainford, Billinge, Haydock and Newton inspecting the outsides of houses to determine the number of potentially unfit homes for slum clearance.
Their act had infuriated councillors in Rainford, who believed that the new council had secret plans to demolish large numbers of perfectly good homes in the village.
At a meeting of the village's Town Planning Committee, its chairman Ron Jones claimed that up to 200 homes could come down.
And Councillor Tony Brown said angrily: "If they demolish here – they will have to do it elsewhere. And they won't get away with it."
And in Newton an official told the Reporter that there had already been a major row over the secret survey.
A general election would be taking place next week and for what was believed to be the very first time, the contest would be a four-cornered fight in St Helens.
Leslie Spriggs was hoping to be re-elected as the town's Labour MP. But as well as Liberal and Conservative opponents, Mr Spriggs had an Independent Labour candidate to defeat.
She was grandmother May Pike of Cedar Street in St Helens who told the Reporter that she'd got fed up with squabbling politicians:
"We've had six years of Labour rule and four years of the Conservatives and they both seem most concerned about scoring points off each other.
"I used to run a newsagent's shop. When I was behind the counter people were always complaining about how much tax they had to pay and the prices of everything. It didn't seem to me that either party had done much for them.
"I've always been a keen armchair politician and I care a lot for ordinary working people because I was brought up as one of them.
"I got so angry and frustrated at the way other people were handling things for them that in the end I decided I could do better myself. So I'm making a stand. I'm a Labour candidate but I won't have party ties and I'll speak my mind."
The 61-year-old with nine grandchildren had a campaign staff of about 21 operating round the town from her sister's Brynn Street home, which was serving as her campaign HQ.
"I wouldn't like to forecast which way it will go," said Mrs Pike. "But I'm sure I'll at least get an eighth of the vote and get my £150 deposit back."
A Prescot boy, who had been virtually blind in one eye since birth, told the Reporter that he could now see through it to watch television after visiting a faith healer.
Ian Price of New Cross Street had a month ago been taken by his grandparents to see Melvin Banks at the Mission Hall in Holt Lane, Rainhill.
The 10-year-old told the Reporter: "He put his hands on my head, and said prayers. My eye has been getting better since."
A year earlier an optician had examined Ian's eye and described his vision as virtually nil.
What particularly upset the boy was being told he could never become a footballer, as Ian was a keen goalkeeper.
However, a letter from Gordon Banks, the England keeper who lost an eye in a car accident, had cheered him up.
The boy's mother, Maureen Price, said: "The ones we have to thank are my mother and father-in-law. They had the faith in the healer."
The Reporter also described how ten "nuclear detectives" would be receiving a prize for being the most efficient crew in the Western sector.
The men were all members of the Royal Observer Corps and for many years had worked underground at a secret bunker in Eccleston.
Their job would only become real in the event of nuclear war when they would be tasked with measuring radioactive fall-out and pass it on to what was described as a "huge underground nerve centre" in Preston.
On the 24th 'Fist of Fury' starring Bruce Lee began a week's screening at the Capitol. Its billing in the Reporter called it "The Most Dangerous Film Ever!!!".
Meanwhile, the ABC Savoy was showing 'Carry On Girls', with Sid James, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor etc.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the result of the General Election in St Helens, a new library is planned for Blackbrook, complaints that Dentons Green Lane had become a danger zone and the preservation plans for four historic Eccleston cottages.