Made In Preston – the blog

Today Sir Bobby Robson died.  His praises are endless and one person said he was on the boundary between the modern and old fashioned manager. With the example of his non-demonstration when Maradonna scored the hand of God goal as traditional but his knowledge of the international game being his way of the new.  He never seemed to be lost for words, lived football and was in some of the greatest games. It looks an enviable life although it wasn’t all roses.

Went to the Grand Theatre in Blackpool to see Quadrophenia. Was a lot better than I expected.  Being someone who liked the Who I’m surprised that I wasn’t aware of it. It’s an interesting story of a rebellious youth who has four elements to his personality so there are 4 actors on stage as well as his mates and girlfriends. All in 60’s gear going to Brighton.  The music is good and the acting was good. It’s an opera so it’s all singing with some Who numbers thrown in.  Got a bit lost with the plot late in the second half but the final number is good and well sung.  The actor reminded me of the Clockwork Orange actor whose name escapes me. Is it Roddy MacDowell? Pretty loud show well done.

Some folk outside with scooters added to the atmosphere.

Drove down the M6 to Tatton for an enjoyable day at the show on Thursday.  Is it that we don’t listen to the weather forecast or that it’s never as they say. Expected the show to be pretty waterlogged but it was quite dry and where there was water they put down wood chippings and it was pretty warm and sunny till 2pm when a couple of showers went by.  

Thought this years was the best one I’ve been to and I’ve been to most. A fuller story with photos is on the website. Click here to read it .

I learnt the Welsh for cricket. Yes, it’s criced.  Pronounced crickedd probably.

What is the relevance of that?  England are playing the first test away, in Wales.

AT this moment England only need 100 runs to avoid an innings defeat with only the tail enders remaining. Anything other than defeat seems unlikely.

As it’s on Sky I havn’t seen any but you have to hand it to the Aussies they made it appear like they were playing a poor team when these are the best we have.  So what to do about it?  It seems England have no worthy bowlers so is it possible to develop a fielding plan to compensate or are there any alternative bowlers.  Is the captain up to it?  I’ve no idea, it seems that anything involving a bat or racket and England are out. Then again it’s only the first test and if a lesson is to be taught it’s best to get it early.

Yesterday had a look at the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool. It’s a small place, but not a bad building,  near North Station. At the moment there is a collection of photographs mounted in acrylic to give a high gloss look. The theme is ‘the world is a stage’. A collection of people who are involved in showbusiness but photographed outside their normal setting in isolation like an empty corridor. Several larger than life people from Las Vegas to Blackpool.   Not a bad presentation, didn’t take long to see and wouldn’t travel far just to see it. There is a local history gallery upstairs which doesn’t do Blackpool justice.

Then had a look in Blackpool library and its local history room and found some interesting stuff for the Preston website.  Blackpool library isn’t part of Lancashire library service so I can’t take out books, that’s one effect of unitary councils.

So Preston has a better library, art gallery and museum and it has 2 other museums and the local records office. Shame Blackpool can’t improve theirs as it has an interesting history.

I read in the LEP that a planning application has been submitted to build a marina, apartments, Tesco and nature reserve at Cottam. Sounds a good thing from reading it and having little knowledge of the area. I might wonder what size of Tesco and the nature reserve sounds neat if it’s accessible.  Planning applications are a bit of a laugh nowadays, there is always something about nature or accessibility and often masking some feature. A house near us was re-built with a very wide drive for ‘accessibility’ not that they hoped the house would be more marketable with a large drive and small garden.

Less of the cynicism. There are a lot of planning proposals around Preston at the moment. Tithebarn, Winckley, Flag Market and now this which is out of the centre.  I noticed on a recent visit that Blackpool has a lot of work in their centre as well including some amazingly large arch structures in one street for a sound and light display.  The Blackpool work is actually happening. However they don’t like Prestons ambitions and are protesting about Tithebarn. Where is all this money coming from?  At least it’s creating jobs and I guess that is also improving optimism about planning application.

Visited the new Barton Grange yesterday. It was a very hot day, about 28degC.   We’ve not been before and it was further towards Garstang than I expected,  just north of the turn off to Guys and through Bilsborrow. You’re impressed from the moment you arrive with it’s open feel, a brick surface on the large car park and a lot of elaborate metalwork.

Inside it was large, open and a decent temperature considering how hot it was outside. It had a lot of nice stuff on sale like most of these places;  furniture and accessories, patio furniture, gardening equipment. Biggish plant area nicely set out. Nice cafe and restaurant with outside seating by what might be a false stream, couldn’t tell. After going through the till you come to the Farmers Shop which contains a good range of quality foods nicely set out.  The gents loo has a special feature which you can buy a photo of.

It’s a bit difficult when you go to these places to know if they really are full of the things you’d buy as we went with no real intention of buying anything except a snack and a drink. I did notice that the Farmers Shop was top price as I buy Black Sheep beer and have never seen it that expensive but if someone spends all that money to make a place worth visiting it has to be paid for. We bought some bread, cheese and fruit.

Overall it’s a nice place to go yet somehow it seemed bigger on style than content. The designer has done a good job and it has a plush feel. I’ll have another look sometime. A worthy destination for the region.

The Preston Council Leaders blog says the Planning Committee will be sitting on Wednesday’s 8th and 15th of July to assess the Tithebarn planning application.

I have some doubts although overall it sounds good enough.

Liverpool One cost about £1bn which is about 40% more than Prestons £700m. It’s size is about 42 acres compared with  32 acres for Preston which is about 30% more.  So Prestons development is cheaper per acre, if that means anything. I’ve read that Liverpool One had some cost overruns although the figures I’ve seen quoted aren’t that clear and are around 10% which doesn’t seem overly excessive.

The Leader of Preston Councils blog says the developers have assured the council it will be available and suitable for the Guild Celebration. I guess there is a risk but that part of Preston didn’t feature much in the Guild I didn’t think except for the bus station and car park. A shuttle bus service from a car park on Moor Park might be needed. Is that in the budget?

Shame about the old bus station it’s a unique and impressive building to look at, although I recall when I used it I thought it was hard to access and you couldn’t see the bus destination boards. Reversing buses didn’t seem such a good idea either.