The area north and east of Preston has some attractive countryside blighted by the continual spread of warehouses and offices.  Building another road doesn’t seem a good idea.  Widening the roundabout will only move the congestion elsewhere. Somehow the traffic should be fitted onto existing roads perhaps using the motorway and creating new junctions, restricting speeds during rush hours and perhaps using the hard shoulder.

Now that the government has removed building targets outlying housing projects should be stopped and more built in areas with ready made transport and employment and on brown field sites. The concept of distant commuting should be deterred, perhaps by congested roads. Then again most people are tired of government dictators and a more libertarian position is now expected.

Not only overall winners but were also finalists in 8 out of the 12 categories including also winning the Business Development and Change Management Award.

The company currently employs 970 people at the Leyland site and exports around 50% of it’s products. Two years ago it made 25,000 vehicles and has recently expanded the capability of the factory to include fully bodied trucks straight to the customer.

Read More – Click here to go to our website page and other links

Ex-Leyland employees and bus enthusiasts working to restore and catalogue the exhibits and records. Over the last few years the museum has struggled despite its fine collection.

It seemed some of the Friends of the Museum had an agenda that wasn’t exactly in line with the museum management.  After a lot of internal politics the main members of the dissenters group departed.

There was cafe service complete with a railway station announcement through a metal jug – train to London stopping at Wigan, Warrington, Crewe……. Funny.  Wish I’d heard a live performance while eating my Chorley Cake.

The serious work of getting the museum back on its feet is progressing through the action of a new manager and the trustees who had run a successful summer festival and obtained accreditation to enable funding grants to be sought.  So an optimistic note at the end.

The museum is priceless with some great vehicles and needs more support. Definitely must take another visit.

The Made in Preston website has a page on the subject, click here.

You expect the Green Party to support green policies. Yes, wind power, insulation and waste management are high on the agenda.  Along with quite high social provision and low defence provision. 

Who could argue with wind, insulation and waste measures? Insulation seems to be one of the biggest factors in reducing energy bills. It isn’t very glamorous though and isn’t going to gain technological credibility so doesn’t get a lot of press. 

All those windmills.  Are they becoming a bit of a blight already?  They’re often not turning, so not very dependable. For the region with its seas, hills and facing the prevailing wind we can expect a lot more who-ever is in power but even more with the Greens. We can also expect Heysham Power Stations to close and the fuel site at Salwick.

Waste? All that plastic packaging and milk cartons. Surely it should be discouraged.  Some countries already re-cycle twice as much as the UK without too much difficulty.

Another Green policy is an increase in public transport.  Not too long ago their promise of building 30,000 new buses would sound like manna from heaven for this region, Leyland,  but now there is hardly any bus building except some body work at East Lancs Coachbuilders, Optare.  

There wasn’t much written about reducing car use but cutting rail fares by  30% and expanding public transport implies a reduction in car use. I’m not convinced about a 30% cut in rail fares. A cut from £10 to £7 is only marginally advantageous and if I was spending that every day, a cut from £50 to £35 wouldn’t be life changing. I’m against encouraging distance commuting so in some ways an increase in fares might help that.  I have free bus use now and have never used it, so cars will need to be penalised. 

The 30,000 buses are an interesting concept. British jobs for British workers?  Including steel from Middlesbrough for windmills and buses, although probably it’s the wrong steel and too little, too late and steel making isn’t green. 

Taxes on aviation, like VAT on aviation fuel, and restrictions on new runways coupled with reductions in rail fares, might create an advantage to resorts like Blackpool.  Especially if the pound sank because of the financial controls the Greens promise. 

On defence the Greens are looking at a defensive posture and only venturing overseas under the UN. As UN don’t usually use more than Land Rovers and light armour you could say no overseas capability will be needed.  Is that goodbye to Ascension, Falklands and perhaps Gibraltar.  Aircraft Carriers and their aircraft and probably a lot of the navy wouldn’t be needed. Trident is definitely out.  I wouldn’t hold much hope for the aircraft industry in Lancashire or ship industry at Barrow.  As an area with a large defence and nuclear industry how many defence workers does it take to insulate one loft.

The Greens are also big on social welfare including workers and human rights and a citizens wage. 

There are other policies about building solar arrays in Africa and using high voltage d.c. transmission lines to bring in the power.  As well as local generation.  It’s not long ago I was reading about the advantages of the a.c. distribution system so I must re-visit that. Surely a policy like that couldn’t be written without engineering awareness. 

The Greens also support the EU, but not as a nation, and support international co-operation, who doesn’t.

As you’d expect, some big changes would result and I was a bit surprised that they seem quite left wing when out of the major elements of the ‘green zone’.   I’d support a ‘greener’ track in many aspects and use of local producers and local workers appeals. There’s always a downside to this type of social engineering in that if basic stuff becomes more expensive you’ve less to spend on enjoyment. In conclusion they won’t get my vote but have my support as a pressure group.

The sale was never a good thing from the perspective of local pride and autonomy but in the bus wars Stagecoach attracted enough passengers to make Preston Bus unable to carry on. This probably wasn’t too difficult against a big organisation.

Although I don’t use the bus I have been reading comments, that might be biased, that fares are increasing and the services less frequent since the takeover.  Also that Stagecoach will move the good buses to other depots where they are seeking more customers.  Whether this is true I don’t know but in my rare experience of travelling on Stagecoach I thought the buses were of a high standard.  Also it’s a British company and is expanding overseas and into other areas like rail. Companies like this are needed to provide ‘British jobs for British workers’ and companies that contribute to the taxpayer in the long term rather than take subsidies.

I’m not clear on how the Competition Commission normally works but it seems a strange arrangement that a buy-out occurs, people and infrastructure are disrupted then months later it’s decided to put the clock back.  Who pays for putting the clock back? At the time of the purchase the Competition Commission (CC) reported that no-one else had been willing to buy Preston Bus who was able to compete with Stagecoach. So who is going to do it now noting that the CC say the buyer must be strong enough to compete?

The announcement says “The sale will include a bus depot, other assets and a network of routes, including services formerly run by Preston Bus but since transferred to Stagecoach following the acquisition.”  Does this mean all routes, just some and include non-former PB routes, and which ones?  The full report is on the CC website and perhaps that explains more.

The output says they provisionally believe there will be a significant lessening of competition (SLC) in commercial bus services  but not in tendered bus services after submissions from a broad base of involved parties.

On the face of it that seems fairly obvious. As does the statment in the report that Preston Bus and other local operators feared competition from Stagecoach and so were restricted in opening any routes that might be thought to be threatening. Also that Stagecoach feared Preston Bus being taken over by another large operator. Although that isn’t to say the report isn’t worthwhile as it contains interesting information that would not have otherwise been public.

The report says the Stagecoach Frenchwood garage was one of the least profitable so in my opinion it isn’t hard to imagine that Stagecoach would seek ways to improve it although at the time maybe Preston Bus didn’t know Stagecoach had such a strong need.  Small bus operators are bound to be at a disadvantage against larger companies. The only protection they could have would either need to be legislative or through loyalty of customers. In this case the people of Preston seem to have voted to travel on Stagecoach buses to a level that made Preston Bus struggle. Unfortunately it wouldn’t need that many to have done that.

There is local pride, sentimentality and a sense of control in having the name of the city on the buses but when it comes to business those factors don’t pay any bills.  The provision of bus services is one where competition is fierce and the players are circling each other all the time. That no-one else was willing to buy Preston Bus for a decent price during the competition, as stated in the report, meant that Stagecoach had played their hand well.

My own opinion is that Stagecoach got a bad reputation in the early days of deregulation when they were building up their business but since then they have maintained a decent fleet and provide a good service. Any business is going to look to make the best of its resources and in general if you are not growing you are shrinking in the world of consolidating globalism. Preston Bus was quite vulnerable and Stagecoach are operating on a national and international scale. On the other hand I would have liked the buses to have kept their livery and the badge of Preston on their side. A world of bland uniformity might be our destiny as we pop out of WH Smith and onto the Stagecoach in Lancaster and for a moment thought you were in Preston. How much do you want to pay for diversity or are council tax and bus fares high enough?

The race was due to leave Stanley Park at 10.15 so was expected here around 10.25.  Everything seemed normal with cars moving about, then a ‘peleton protection car’ came by to whip up a bit of enthusiasm with some announcements and to get the children cheering. Next came police motorcyclists relaying to each road junction stopping the traffic.  Much larger than expected a mass of cyclists taking up the full width of the wide road with police cars and support teams and ambulance following at what seemed a fairly leisurely pace. It looked great and I was so envious of the riders with their fitness and being in it, although it would be too much dedication for me.

Tour of Britain Cycle Race 2009 leaving Blackpool

The new promenade should be a good vantage point although I can imagine it will be busy.

Loads of good vantage points.  Think a trip to Blackpool might be on the cards. According to the map it starts in the middle of Stanley Park and out through the main gates at the cricket club side before going along Newton Drive towards the hospital roundabout, where it goes left.

On the return route it goes past the airport then along the prom to the Sandcastle.

At Broughton the sprint seems to start just east of the motorway and ends west of the A6 so the A6  junction must be closed off for a period.

We used to watch the tour going through Bamber Bridge about 30 years ago when it was called the Milk Race. A local landlords son was usually in the race.

The map of the route is available on this link.

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/_ns_pdf/stage_4_route_map.pdf

Timetable on this link.

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/_ns_race/stage4_route.asp

Sign on the motorway said use Junction 29 and then I discovered that all signs led to Park and Ride. Well my intention was to jump out of the car look around and take some photos and be home to go out for lunch.  I didn’t know where it was and after driving round the mysterious roads of Leyland and experiencing the curious high and bevel edged speed humps I decided to go home. 40 mile round trip, lack of initiative on my part, need to buck up.