THERE'S one thing that can be said about Tyldesley businessman Mike Norris - he's a generous guy.

For years he allowed the Salvation Army the use of his premises next to his business Frank's Cafe on Elliott Street to run as a charity shop, and now it is used as a fund raiser for community events.

But big-hearted though he might be, Mike is not magnanimous enough to pay the council's Christmas lighting bills.

He tells me he is being blamed for switching off the town's Christmas lights at 11pm.

Mike, the business representative on Tyldesley Forum and chairman of the Tyldesley Business Partnership, said he is getting grief from a shed load of people about the decorations being turned off too soon.

"I tell them I dont operate the switch, it's the council's lighting people who decide when they go off. My own lights, which have been decorating the cafe for 20 years, are my own business and I leave them on."

He says because the town now runs on a night time economy the council has been asked to leave the streets lit up until the early hours for the past three years but the request has been refused.

They actually come on at around 3pm and go black at 11pm before revellers hit the streets and they never see them.

Seems a bit daft doesn't it?