ONE of the QLR's top officers has appealed to Hyndburn Council to help save the threatened regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel John Downham, the QLR's regimental secretary, spoke out at a meeting of the authority's cabinet.

He appealed to the borough's top politicians to join the fight against the Ministry of Defence's plans to amalgamate Lancashire's historic regiment with others in the North West.

Col Downham spoke for half an hour on the celebrated history of the regiment, and appealed for the council to sign a petition, and write to support the local soldiers.

He told the cabinet meeting: "We are likely, if plans go through, to be swept up into a large North West regiment, which could stretch from Carlisle to Crewe. We hope to exclude Cheshire but even that isn't a foregone conclusion."

Under the proposals, four infantry battalions in the UK are to be cut. Three will be axed from England and Wales, and one from Scotland.

The 'survivors' of the cuts are to merge into regional regiments of two or more battalions between 2006 and 2008.

The army say that in the North West, either the weakest regiment must be disbanded, or all three of the present regiments -- the QLR, the King's Own Loyal Border Regiment and the King's Regiment -- will merge.

Now the QLR, backed by a Lancashire Evening Telegraph campaign, are hoping to keep a Lancashire identity within the regiment.

The authority has agreed to write to Hyndburn MP Greg Pope in support of the campaign.

To date the Lancashire Evening Telegraph has received over 1,700 coupons from readers backing our campaign to save the county's only surviving regiment. We will hand them to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon before a final decision is taken.