North End’s Promotion Prospects

Preston North End have been in the top 6, mainly in 4th place, in League 1 for most of the season.  Their points haul puts them well ahead of the 7th team so a place in the play-offs looks assured, needing 79pts or 10 more from 8 games.

However automatic promotion seems very unlikely with North End being 10 points behind the 2nd team.  Three teams above PNE have scored far more, have a much better goal difference and have games in hand.

The 8 games to go are:

Home – Peterborough, Crawley, Carlisle, Shrewsbury, Gillingham.

Away – Bristol, Brentford, Crewe.

Normally 5 home games would be an advantage but PNE are doing better away.  In reality it is likely only 6 points are needed to get to the play offs.

Automatic promotion looks to favour Wolves and Brentford, with Leyton Orient a possibility and Rotherham on a late run.

The play-offs look to favour: Leyton Orient, Rotherham, Preston and Peterborough.  MK Dons look like an outside chance.  Swindon, Walsall, Port Vale and Sheffield United also have a chance.  With Sheffield making a late surge and having 2 games in hand.

In the play-offs it will be a lottery although on paper Leyton Orient will feel to be favourites.   Sheffield United and Rotherham are both looking like late improvers.  Experience says that things can still change quite a lot and Easter often sets the situation.

PNE have a realistic chance of getting to Wembley and then winning promotion.  We must hope they don’t ease off as it’s sometimes hard to step up again.

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Preston Draft Master Plan – 5,000 new homes

 

Preston Draft Master Plan - 5,000 new homes

Preston Draft Master Plan – 5,000 new homes

The Preston Draft Master Plan will be published for consultation on 20th January 2014.

It is said to contain plans for 5,000 homes in north west Preston along the south side of the M55 motorway.  These will be in the form of a ‘garden city’ which might be influenced by new regulations being promoted.

The new Regulations are expected to require that developments must have ponds and streams to absorb heavy rain so it isn’t all dumped immediately into the drains causing them to overflow and flood.  It’s proposed that maintenance of the ponds and streams will be paid by an annual levy on the residents in the new developments.

This area is good countryside blighted by the M55 which provides the excuse for not feeling too strongly about it.  Although it’s well away from employment areas so will be in need of roads with commuters expected to pile onto the M55 or into Preston Centre.  From that point of view 5,000 houses, perhaps 13,000 people, sounds excessive.

It’s downwind of the nuclear processing plant as well.

Whether the next step might be to build north of the M55 will cause concern about impacting the pleasingly rural feel of Woodplumpton.  Also surely it isn’t a plan to reduce the solid Conservative majority for that parliamentary seat by changing its character.

Preston Council and Central Lancashire City websites contain the documentation leading up to the decisions and probably will contain the draft Master Plan later this month.  There is a lot of reading there, could do with a simple summary.

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Lancashire City Deal let’s see the action

An impressive Business Insight supplement in The Times newspaper, Tuesday 10th December, covering Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire’s big City Deal and Leyland Trucks.

The articles give a very rosy, unquestioning picture but it is said infrastructure and education are key investments to enable prosperity, and that is what is happening.

This City Deal is worth £434m and has a target over 10 years to generate 20,000 new jobs, £1bn in gross added value, 17,420 new homes, £2.3bn in leveraged commercial value, some school and health facilities.  On the face of it this is growth although it isn’t clear if it makes up for any shrinkage anywhere.

It’s complemented by Enterprise Zones, Superfast Lancashire broadband project, Boost Business Lancashire and a host of local initiatives.

£334m will be for infrastructure and include four major road schemes such as the Warton link to the M55 and 4,000 homes, Broughton By-pass and 1,400 homes, Penwortham By-pass, South Ribble distributor road and 2,700 homes.  An additional £100m from the Lancashire Pension Fund will be invested in housing and development.

The article says Leyland Trucks are seeking to position Leyland at the forefront of building up a major automotive supply chain in Lancashire.  In this it is supported by the MD, Ron Augustyn, being a member of the government’s Automotive Council.  No doubt many of the parts are imported so adding to the local supply chain should bring benefits to the plant, let’s hope it succeeds in that.  Some 40% of output from the assembly plant at  Leyland Trucks is exported.

The article also covers Boost Business Lancashire which is £7.2m from the European Regional Development Fund with the aim to grow the local economy by £20m and create 1,200 new jobs.  235 businesses have signed up to it this year.

City Deals put the onus onto the locality to give its best shot, it could be said that in this it beats the scrapped Regional Development Agencies in being more local.  The City Deal covers the roads, houses and some schooling and health.  The electrification of most of the railway in the region has already been announced.  Let’s start to see some action.

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Heritage lost for a pittance – CCK1

Disappointing that Preston Council is selling an element of its inheritance for a pittance. The old registration suffix numbers CK and RN are part of the symbols of Preston.  For a few pounds the council is going to sell car registration CCK1. Does Civic Pride exist in the council chamber. It seems not.

Preston symbolic registration number CCK1 to be sold for a pittance.

Preston symbolic registration number CCK1 to be sold for a pittance.

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More Preston Bus Station Positive News

More positive thinking about the bus station.  It is expected that Lancashire County Council will buy the station from Preston City Council at a give away price. LCC have funds for a new bus station that they are expected to divert to refurbishment along with funding available to listed buildings from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

No plans have been announced for the refurbishment.  Although the listing gives clues on what can be done.  The listing includes the ramps so they’re unlikely to change without debate.  The outer shell and interior fittings are listed but their form is still good.   Whereas the internal ramps need widening and the lifts, stairs and toilets must surely be improved.

What can be done about the subway and the ramp to the Guild Hall and access across the bus area to give them a hint of the 21st Century?

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Lancashire Cheesemaking display

I had a cheesy grin.  It was a visit to cheesemakers Dewlay just 8 miles north of Preston on the A6.

Dewlay Cheesemakers near Garstang, Lancashire Cheese

Dewlay Cheesemakers near Garstang, Lancashire Cheese

Their cheesemaking site has a viewing gallery, exhibition, meeting room and a shop.  So we decided to pop in while passing.  You can’t miss it with that windmill towering over the building.

Set back from the road is a modern building producing all kinds of cheese including award winning Lancashire.  The exhibition isn’t large but it contains interesting information and old cheese making equipment.  Then upstairs is a long viewing gallery where the manufacturing cycle is explained on boards and you can see the cheese being made through windows.

Dewlay Award winning Lancashire Cheese

Dewlay Award winning Lancashire Cheese

After that it’s off to the shop for some cheese and there are biscuits and other cheese related items.

The Dewlay Cow. Part of the cheese exhibition

The Dewlay Cow. Part of the cheese exhibition

While we were there a talk of some kind was being arranged in the large meeting room.

Not a big trip but worthy.

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Grade II Listing 1416042: Preston Bus Station

Preston Bus Station, Grade II listed.

Preston Bus Station, Grade II listed.

The campaign to save Preston Bus Station was given a boost this week when the bus station was listed by English Heritage.  This puts the bus station in the top 800 post war heritage buildings in England.

The listing of the building makes it eligible for grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and others. However these are usually only obtained after a protracted application process.

Some big figures for refurbishment have been offered, up to £23m.  Are these realistic?  They’re unlikely to be reduced by listing as there will be a need to preserve listed features. A strategy of prioritising and phasing the work may enable grants to be obtained in easier to achieve smaller applications.

Preston Council are having difficulty balancing their books and are looking for a quick kill.  It should not therefore be considered that this is the end of the story.  We eagerly await their next step and hope it is a positive one.  The potential pots of money totted up along with a pragmatic plan of refurbishment, improvement and integration into the city plan will be more good news.

Lancashire County Council offered support to build a new bus station but not to maintain the old one.  It could be argued their interest has therefore been declared, they obviously have a few million pounds in their budget for Preston Bus Station. Despite Councillor Rankin saying it is an issue for Prestonians, the bus station is a regional hub.

Blackpool have a large £28m development underway in the centre of town for new council offices and refurbished ex-bus station and car park.  Where do they get their funds?

It is said councils can borrow cheaper than private companies.  Let’s be positive, the economy is on the turn, interest rates are very low, is it time to borrow for the bus station.

 

What does listing mean? 

There are 4 categories of English Heritage listing; I, II* (two star), II, III.  On 23rd September 2013, Grade II (two) listing was announced.   This means the building is nationally important and of special interest.  Less than 0.2% of listed buildings were built after 1945, this makes it 1 of around 800 post war listed buildings in England.

Listing means that consent must be applied for to make any changes which might affect its special interest.  However it can be altered, extended and occasionally permission is granted to demolish a listed building.

Preston Bus Station is listed entry number 1416042.   Its features of note are its curved concrete front on the car park decks that focus on the great length of the building. The original fittings, floors and signage survive and make an important contribution.  It is an example of 1960s integrated traffic planning.  The listing includes the car park ramps and taxi stand but excludes the 3 passenger subways.

Reference:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

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Transport Plans for Central Lancashire

It’s always pleasing to read about new transport and infrastructure projects. Transport is recognised as a key factor in enabling development.

This week Transport for Lancashire announced new road schemes.  Their plan of laying infrastructure is to enable the proposals for housing and industry in the City Deal. It brings a new by-pass for Broughton and a link from the M55 to Springfields and the Warton Enterprise Zone.  These are worthy plans but they’ll probably take at least 5 years.  Couple that with electrification of the Manchester to Blackpool line and well into the future high speed rail trains, if not the track, should lay a good foundation for the area.

Most of this is headed by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, chaired by our favourite grocer, Edwin Booth. This is localism allowing local authorities the ability to plan and implement what the elected representatives agree is best for the future.

For Lancashire, Aerospace and Shale Gas are the two key economic opportunities seen by the councils. While loss of traditional industries, over reliance on the public sector and lack of suitable housing are seen as the challenges.

Let’s hope it works. Aerospace has the potential to continue to be big although the role of the local factories is changing from heading huge European projects to a smaller role in bigger American projects, with future European projects thin on the ground.  Depending on aerospace might contain risks but it’s here now and to encourage it to stay we need to make sure it has the best support.  The UK aerospace industry has always benefitted from big investment in R&D and science in the UK along with a basic skill base, these are also key factors needing encouragement.  Locally one of these can be helped through engineering education.

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4G mobile signal in Preston area

Mobile phone companies are racing to roll out the new 4G service.  This will speed up mobile internet making video more viable and there is a commitment to making the signal more usable indoors.  Although it will be interesting to see how good it is in practise.

EE have rolled out their initial offering using a piece of spectrum made available in 2012 and Vodafone and O2 will begin on 29th August 2013 in London.

After that a number of large cities will get the Vodafone and O2 service by the end of 2013.  In the north west that means Manchester and Liverpool.   When the Preston and surrounding area will get a service hasn’t been declared but it could be a year away.

We haven’t heard how Three are going to roll out their service although they have said they will maintain their existing tariffs, unlike the other companies.  However 4G might  use up your allowance a lot faster if it’s allowance based.

The expectation is that coverage of most of the UK will be achieved by the end of 2015.

4G operates on 3 frequency bands. These are 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2600MHz.    EE are using 1800MHz now and will also use 800MHz and 2600MHz,  Vodafone will use 800MHz and 2600MHz,  O2 and Three will use 800MHz.

800MHz is able to cover a wider distance and so will be better outside cities, 2600MHz will enable more users simultaneously so is more suited to cities.

I’ll buy a new phone when 4G is widely established and a lot of phones have it. That might be over 15 months away.  My own experience with internet on mobile is pretty poor and not something I’d pay a lot of money for.   I seem to have a habit of being in places where there is inadequate signal when I want to sit and enjoy.

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Local interest in ‘The White Queen’ on BBC

The BBC historical dramatisation ‘The White Queen’ based on a book written by Philippa Gregory, seeks to give a female perspective to history in the 15th Century by portraying events from the Queen’s view.  The three ladies most in the drama are Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Neville and Margaret Beaufort.  You may say you’ve never heard of them and that is what the programme seeks to address.

Following defeat of the House of Lancaster by the House of York, Elizabeth Woodville, a Lancastrian marries the new king and becomes a Yorkist.  Margaret Beaufort is mother to Henry Tudor the future Henry VII and lives at Pembroke Castle in Wales. They say the code of chivalry enabled women to survive when their husbands had been brutally murdered after being on the losing side in battle.

Basically Lancaster is all but finished but Henry Tudor is their hope.  Margaret Beaufort is a woman of very strong belief with a mission to put her son on the throne.  After the death of her husband in battle with the Yorkists she marries Lord Stanley.  This is the local link.

Lord Stanley is a major landowner and ruler in north-west England. He’s known to have a foot in both camps and manages to remain alive who-ever is in power.   Stanleys were in their seat at West Derby, now in Liverpool, and known as the Earl of Derby (in Lancashire). Although Liverpool wasn’t significant in the 15th century.

The Stanley’s were MP of Preston. Several parks, pubs, even a football team in the region are named after them.  Greenhalgh Castle at Garstang was built by the same Stanley as in the White Queen in 1490, it was ruined by Cromwell in the Civil Wars.

Another regional link is that a painting of Elizabeth Woodville hangs in Dunham Massey (National Trust) near Manchester.  Don’t know why though.  Click Here for a link to a print of it.

This is an interesting programme although difficult to grasp who the main players really are until you’ve watched a few episodes.  The companion programme, The White Queen and her rivals, also on now assists in making sense of it.

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Preston Bus Station conspiracy theory

The Evening Post published a story yesterday that the recommendation of the consultants was to refurbish the bus station.  To add a touch of mystery it is alleged this part was deleted at the request of Lancashire County Council (LCC) before it was shown to Preston Council.

In their defence LCC said the cost of £23m was way outside budget and that the option was also outside of the scope requested.

It has been suggested by others that a refurbishment could be done for much less.  In the absence of any artists impressions or plans for the proposed new bus station it seems Preston Council and the public are being asked to support what could be a pig in a poke.

Read the full story in the Lancashire Evening Post.

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/business/preston-bus-station-report-was-altered-1-5777002

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Museum of Lancashire – Preston People Panorama

Preston people panorama at the Museum of Lancashire. Two rooms of photos.

Preston people panorama at the Museum of Lancashire. Two rooms of photos.

What great photographs of the people of Preston. Taken in super wide panorama during the period of the Guild 2012.   The many groups of Preston; sport clubs, public services, schools, churches, businesses.  100s of people on some of the photos all pin sharp.  Lovely to see the many reactions of people their faces and the way they stand, people of all ages and all styles – some posing, some a bit cross-legged shy.  You need to get close to them to see properly.

This exhibition is in two rooms at the Museum of Lancashire on Stanley Street. Free to enter. The museum has had a good make-over and even has stylish seats in the cafe.

There is a lot to see in there. I enjoyed the industry section and some good stuff about the first world war including a walk through trench, with mustard gas smell sampler. The sea-side section with George Formby film is good.  It was all interesting but I’ve been a few times and do a bit at a time as it takes quite a while.

Stanley Street is next to the prison and there is a decent free car park, always a big plus.

Some guided tours, by a historian from UCLan, of the Preston People Panorama are on their website.

Visit their website to get opening times and more information.

http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/acs/sites/museums/venues/mol/?siteid=3860&pageid=16500&e=e

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Broadband Speeds accelerate across Lancashire

The recent roll out of fibre by BT has brought high speed internet, 80MB maximum, to areas outside of the towns and cities covered by Virgin and more choice within.  Fibre lines are available through BT, Plusnet, Talk Talk, and Sky.  Not all areas are covered as yet but it’s getting fuller.

I bought a Plusnet line a few weeks ago and the transfer from my old provider was easy and happened within 2 weeks of order.  The engineer took about an hour in our house.

Plusnet are a small Sheffield company that was bought out by BT and seem to be selling cheaper packages than BT using BT lines, although without the frills that BT offer such as wireless hotspots.

The instructions seemed pretty straightforward but if you’re not keen at all on technology I’d buy fully assisted set up.

An upside is you don’t need filters, on the other hand they fit a second wire from your master phone socket to the router.

Running the www.thinkbroadband.com speedtest and looking at their map of results shows that people are getting 69MB in Preston and in the surrounding countryside.  Although speeds vary according to how far from the exchange and cabinet you are.

The fibre connections are what is called FTTC. That is ‘Fibre To The Cabinet’.  The cabinets being the green boxes at the end of your street or nearby.  So there is a fibre cable from the exchange to the cabinet and then it runs on your ordinary telephone line from the cabinet to your house.  Speeds up to 120MB are forecast for this technology in the next few years.

To check if you can get fibre run a check on the BT website if you have a BT line.  Click here to go to the BT page.

High speed broadband, what do you do with it?  Pages load faster. Downloads sometimes happen almost immediately. Uploading at nearly 20MB makes the ‘cloud’ very usable.  If you have a few people doing their own thing then you won’t notice they’re on.

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Is Stoke giving Preston a Bus Station message

Preston’s Council Leader gave us his version of the Bus Station Blues on the BBC Culture Show last week.  It seems it will be knocked down on the altar of day to day council services and pressure from Lancashire County Council.

If you want to get depressed take a walk from the unloved Bus Station into the Guild Hall Arcade and the Victorian Covered Market.  These buildings all look like time is not on their side.

Also there are a lot of cars on the Bus Station.  Will the Park and Ride on Bluebell Way take the strain.  It’s a long way out, what is the plan.

You might wonder how accountable Lancashire County Council (LCC) is when they can happily offer a new bus station and let Preston’s Council take the blame for knocking down the old one.  Although Preston’s leader said no-one from outside Preston should have a say,  it seems LCC is having a big say.

Stoke's £15m Bus Station opens 1st April 2013

Stoke’s £15m Bus Station opens 1st April 2013

Could LCC offer anything like Stoke’s £15m new Bus Station with 22 bays, half of Preston’s need. Built on a car park so no demolition cost involved.  Yet the cost of Preston’s new bus station, which will be twice as big and include demolition won’t be much different.

Is there a message here that Preston is going to get a second rate bus station, a bus shelter perhaps with an Eaga Bites van parked at the entrance.  What does this say about Preston?

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Big Bra maker hits town

A new name for manufacturing in Preston is ‘made in preston’ and nothing to do with this website.  Newly launched and working from a factory here in Preston.  If you’re looking for a big bra buy one freshly made by Preston workers in a Preston factory. I was wondering about buying one myself but last time I bought some women’s clothes my wife didn’t seem to appreciate it, so it wasn’t a merry Christmas present.

Their web address is www.madeinpreston.com  and we’re watching out for the full range to appear.

It makes sense to buy local and give your child a better chance of getting a job and learning a skill.

Nikki Hesford, now Fretwell, runs the business and appeared on Dragons Den in a recently repeated show.  Announced as Nikki from Lancaster she didn’t win over Theo who has his own bra business. Since then she’s found other backers and got married.  Her marriage got a big write up in a Times newspaper last week.

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Back from holiday and have a few new articles to post.

Airbus A330, large parts of the wings made in Preston (Samlesbury)

Brisbane Airport: The plane home to Singapore, Airbus A330, large parts of the wings are made at Samlesbury; Made in Preston.

Just back from a month in Australia.  It was hot, wet, expensive, like someone has turned up the brightness of the sun to double bright.  In the cities and resorts it’s good on creature comforts and you can still taste some old time if you travel a bit.  That dollar needs to go down to 2 to the pound to take the edge off the wallet damage.  I’ve been there a lot and had two skin cancers to prove it but they were reflecting the days when 3 factor sun cream was soppy and sunbaking was cool.

Several new articles are planned for Made in Preston website, so watch this space.

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High Speed Rail Northern Route – 2032!

High Speed Trains, Eurostar, at St Pancras, Oct 2012.

The high speed rail route beyond Birmingham has been announced today.  The northwest terminus will be four new platforms at Piccadilly in Manchester and there will be a parkway station at Manchester Airport.  A link to the West Coast Main Line will be from Manchester to Wigan.

Preston will benefit as fast trains will travel on the high speed track and then move onto conventional track either from Crewe or Manchester.   It is unlikely that these trains will be truly high speed capable of 220mph, they are more likely to be similar to the 140mph Javelins that travel to the South Coast on the high speed track.  Although 2032 is a long time in technology terms.

There is a debate about how the line will reach Scotland or if it does at all.  If it came via the West Coast it would be likely to be on a new track which some have said will create a new station to the east of Preston.  This is not part of High Speed 2 and would be an additional route, perhaps High Speed 3.  It might also depend on a referendum result in Scotland.  The SNP government strongly support a high speed route, but there could be a question about who would pay for a line beyond a large English city.

The date for completion of High Speed 2 is 2032, and by then other changes will take place.  A decision on extending the line would be hoped to be well before then although the annual spend is limited so continuation could possibly only be after 2032.

That brings on yet another debate,  why does it take so long to build.  Some say it should be built at the same time as the southern section.  That certainly seems a great idea but will cost more per year to build and annual cost is a big factor.  The current build programme has been delayed because the London Crossrail programme is taking all the major rail infrastructure budget.  It seems obvious the high speed rail programme needs pulling forward 10 years.  Get a move on, we need it now!

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Are we worried about HMV?

Yes we’re worried about HMV.  Worried that it seemed a bit stuck in a time warp, worried it might go when it’s a big store and good to enter when a great track is playing.  Worried that a name from the past might fade.  Worried about another hole in the shopping centre. Worried about jobs.

Are we worried about HMV?

HMV entered administration in mid January 2013 and it isn’t certain if it will continue in business.

Yet after being a record label for as long as most can remember it suddenly appeared as a national chain around the same time as Virgin Megastores so it’s history as a store isn’t too familiar. The sentiment comes more from its old name and the dog.   It also contributed to the standard high street where every town looks the same.  The local shops like Brady’s the main record store in Preston of the past were driven out.  When CDs came out we spent a fortune duplicating our vinyl collections and everyone was happy and the business took its profit.

It’s been obvious for several years that downloading and streaming, both bought and pirated, is taking more of the market.  Also that out of town supermarkets are taking a slice of that casual CD or DVD purchase.  The response of HMV seemed to be to move towards games, movies, opening game centres and lately into hardware; headphones and tablets mainly.  Looks like time is catching up and it will be lucky to survive. It would be nice if it could, and it might, but when something goes an opportunity rises for something else although the it would seem the space will be smaller.

Is a niche coffee shop selling downloads and playing music, a sort of music library coffee shop a possibility.  Just a thought, in your dreams maybe.

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The Preston Doomsday Scenario

It’s easy to sit at home and scoff about Doomsday Scenario statements from the leader of Preston’s council as reported in the Evening Post.  Today’s comment about the Guild Hall being on the agenda for cuts or even knocked down sounded dramatic and it can’t be certain if it was posturing against central government or positioning for the bus station debate.

The suggestion of bringing in an entertainment company to run the Guild Hall is similar to Blackpool where the council brought in Merlin Entertainments, operators of Madam Tussauds, to run the Tower.  Sounds reasonable, if possible.

Given that the Guild Hall is Preston’s only large entertainment centre it’s unlikely to be knocked down.  Although the Guild Hall isn’t a place I’d suggest anyone goes to have a look at, like the bus station it has a very tired look and suffering from that gap between fresh and old.

Preston Guild Hall

Preston Guild Hall, the Preston Guild ceremony 2012.

The council say the settlement with central government is another big reduction and something must give.  Without being an expert on council spending it’s hard to comment, but the buildings being discussed have been there at least 40 years and weathered worse storms than the current recession. Why is it that this time buildings are being knocked down.

It is logical to review all services and buildings and that is what they’re doing.  There are a lot of empty buildings in Preston that many citizens would like to be looked after, the old post office and Mount Street for example.  Hopefully the answer will not be a dull politically motivated announcement.  An assumption of better times to come should dictate the answers.

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North West of England football hierarchy 1st January 2013

Where does your club stand in the north west from Premier to Conference Premier League?

I’d expect Preston North End to be at least 8th and potentially 5th.  Above Wigan and running to be ahead of Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton and Burnley.   Yet Wigan are impressive and deserve their Premier League spot and until last year so did Blackburn and Bolton.  Which leaves Preston slugging it out with Blackpool and Burnley.  If Blackburn and Bolton don’t recover their Premier position quickly they will reduce their status for the long term.

  1. Manchester U
  2. Manchester C
  3. Everton
  4. Liverpool
  5. Wigan *
  6. Blackburn
  7. Blackpool
  8. Burnley
  9. Bolton *
  10. Tranmere
  11. Crewe
  12. Preston
  13. Carlisle
  14. Oldham
  15. Bury *
  16. Fleetwood
  17. Rochdale
  18. Morecambe
  19. Accrington *
  20. Hyde
  21. Macclesfield
  22. Southport
  23. Stockport
  24. Barrow*

* end of division.

Deepdale, home of Preston North End

Deepdale, home of Preston North End

Overall there are 112 clubs in the 5 divisions and 24 are in the North West or Granada TV region from Macclesfield in the south to Carlisle in the north.

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