THERE was a special delivery for a postmistress whose bundle of joy was arrived early on New Year’s Day.

Bev Burnett and Alun Hughes’s little girl Alicia Catherine Florence Burnett Hughes was born at 6.15am yesterday, weighing in at 8lb 7oz.

The couple, from Haslingden, will have plenty of help, as Bev’s mum and dad, Barbara and John Burnett, and sister Vicky Burnett all live in the same street.

Bev said: “It did not seem like two minutes ago that I left my sister’s New Year’s Eve party and my waters broke.

“Alicia really is a perfect New Year delivery.”

Alicia was one of a handful of babies to be born at Burnley Birth Centre, on New Year’s Day.

Fozia Ali’s little girl, who is yet to be named and weighed 5lb 10oz, arrived shortly after midnight and shared her birthday with her dad, Imran Ali.

The proud father, who lives in Accrington, said he was delighted the couple’s sixth child had arrived on January 1.

The 29-year-old fibre glass moulder said: “She is the best birthday present I could have wished for.”

And Stacey Foley, a care assistant from Nelson, gave birth to a 7lb 11oz girl at 3.32am.

The baby does not yet have a name but Stacey said her eldest daughter Lexie, six, could not wait to have her little sister home.