The Nifty 250: News of the day in so many words

HUNDREDS OF STREET CLEANERS are to go on strike as thousands descend on the city for the Matthew Street Music Festival. About 600 workers will stage a series of walkouts from midnight on Friday after a breakdown of talks aimed at resolving a dispute over bonus pay. Council leader, Warren Bradley, has said contingency plans were in place.

REPAIRS WILL FINALLY BEGIN on flood-hit homes, seven weeks after the incident. Dozens of houses and businesses in the Page Moss area of Huyton were damaged after contractors burst a mains pipe off Liverpool Road on 6 July. Knowlsey Housing Trust said contractors had to wait for the houses to dry out before repairs could begin. Spokesman Ian Thompson said the trust had tried to ensure that work began "as quickly as possible".

PAUL MCCARTNEY HAS DENIED him and John Lennon did not get along. In an interview, Sir Paul put some of Lennon’s outbursts down to drugs and talking “s**t” he did not mean. He also denied Lennon’s complaints in interviews that he sabotaged songs in the studio by not committing his full creative energy to them. “John’s personality was more abrasive than mine and…that is what made up the Beatles”, says McCartney.

A TEENAGER WAS ATTACKED by two youngsters who asked him for a cigarette. The attack happened at midnight on Thursday when the 17-year-old victim was walking home through Upton near Chester. When he said he didn’t have one the pair repeatedly punched him. Police are appealing for information.