CELEBRATING the New Year is something most people in the Bolton area will be doing tonight. But would-be town centre revellers have already been warned not to ignore the drinking ban on the streets, or they could be starting 1999 in a police cell.

Police want the traditional celebrations in Victoria Square to be as little trouble as they have been in the past few years. They want families and everyone to be safe to enjoy the coming of the New Year as the Town Hall clock strikes midnight.

The re-vamped Victoria Square provides a handsome setting for this year's official run-up to the new Millennium - although this New Year, there will be no cavorting in the chilly waters of the now-absent fountains. And we echo the hopes of police that it will be an enjoyable, trouble-free occasion, heralding a safe and prosperous 1999.

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