Another update. The first pillar looks done and a worker bridge has been built. The second pillar isn’t there. It will be interesting to see the mounting of the cantilever structure.
Category: Road
Buses, trucks, cars, roads and the like related to the region around Preston.
British Commercial Vehicle Museum re-opens after Covid Closure
On Saturday 18th July 2020 the British Commercial Vehicle Museum (BCVM) in Leyland re-opened after its Covid-19 Closure.
We visited just a few days later. The first museum visit for several months. Things have been adjusted to protect everyone.
On arrival just after 10am there was space on the museum car park and plenty of space on the Park and Display Car Park next door. We were going to look round Leyland so paid just 80p for 3 hours parking.
At the door we were greeted by a happy gent wearing a visor who took our contact info for test and trace, if needed. Then we paid to enter, buying an annual pass. It makes it easier to decide where to go when you don’t need to pay extra.
In the cafe the tables are more spread out with a one way system, the serving staff wore visors. We had a coffee.
The museum has sanitation points all around to keep your hands clean. Especially on the touch displays, which you are advised to use a pencil provided to make selections. Plus the lorry simulator and other walk on displays.
A one way scheme is in operation for a circuit round the museum. There didn’t seem to be as many buses as usual. The Fishwick’s were there and the Ribble Tiger Cub coach, a classic. An interesting exhibit not seen before is the Petrol Tanker, a large item. The TV Detector van stood out. How could anyone not see that outside your house.
We browsed in the shop and bought a BCVM shopping bag, you never know when you’ll need it.
After the museum we walked to the Railway Station to look at some trains, about a 10 minute walk. Quite a bit of rail traffic with the Pendolino ‘City of Preston’ passing at speed on a Glasgow to London train.
With our annual pass there’ll be more visits.
Work Starts on new Western Distributor Road
Work is underway on the M55 to create a new junction for the Preston Western Distributor also at the A583 intersection. This new road will link Preston and the southern Fylde: Freckleton, Warton, Lytham St Annes, to the M55 early in 2023.
The Preston Western Distributor will link the A583 Preston to Blackpool main road and the M55 motorway and could be the start of a new River Ribble crossing.
Thousands of new houses are being built in the area north west of Preston.
Map of the Preston Western Distributor Road courtesy Lancashire County Council:
Old Tram Road Bridge Closed
The Old Tram Road Bridge was declared unsafe and has been fenced off. It’s said to cost too much to repair so might be closed for a long time. The Old Tram Road is one of those features of Preston that links to long ago and the industrial heritage.
The Notorious Fishergate Bollards
No blog is complete without a mention of Preston’s Fishergate bollards. Lancashire County Council think they can be seen from the moon. Yet several motorists only feet away have actually gone over the top of them.
These bollards have their own Twitter account and have been put up for an architectural prize such is their splendour.
The circled bollard is obvious, who would not see that! Especially at night or in heavy rain surrounded by other traffic.
Ikea at Cuerden
The first Ikea in Lancashire is earmarked for the proposed 160 acre Cuerden retail site at the end of the M65 other retailers are being discussed. This nice green field site is another extension to the built up area south of Preston.
Penwortham By Pass
The Penwortham By Pass will run from the A59 to the A582 which runs to the M6/M65 and to Preston.
Work started on the new £17.5m bypass in January 2018 and is scheduled to be completed early 2020.
Big Transport Upgrades Around Preston
Transport matters have heated up around Preston with both road and rail having big upgrades.
On the train the electrification to Manchester and Blackpool is going into its final phase in November with the closure of the line to Blackpool until November while Blackpool North Station is remodelled. The track to Manchester has had big works at Farnworth Tunnel, Bolton and Chorley. The completion of electrification is due in March and new, refurbished anyway, trains will be running on the summer timetable from May. This complements the electrification already completed between Wigan and Liverpool and Wigan to Manchester.
On the road the Broughton by-pass opened in October from the M55 junction to north of Broughton. Plans for another link from the M55 to the Blackpool Road junction of Riversway via Bartle are being finalised and a major stretch of new housing along the route is already well underway. Plans are also finalised for the Penwortham by-pass to the A59 west of Penwortham. All that’s needed now is a western crossing of the Ribble to create a circle around Preston.
Transport Improvements all around Preston
Trams, trains, roads are in the news.
Trampower, the company who have been promoting a light rail system in Preston, are pushing to be allowed to run a one mile test track in Deepdale. This will use the old Longridge line. PWA Planning are providing consultancy and Pre-Metro Solutions will operate the system. Pre-Metro Solutions operate the Stourbridge Light Railway which links Stourbridge town centre with the national rail system at Stourbridge Junction every 10 minutes on a one mile track using bus type diesel railcars. There are big ambitions for the tram route. Preston has quite a bit of old rail track hardly used and it could save digging up the roads. Although Manchester is increasingly ambitious with its light rail and the city centre roads seem to have been semi-closed for years with expansion after expansion. Blackpool is to expand its tram route to North Station which will dig up a stretch of road in the town centre, daring stuff.
Electrification of the line to Manchester is now restarted, after a new contractor was selected, with overhead wire supports being installed near Bolton. In April the Northern Rail franchise was taken over by Arriva Rail North and the Trans-Pennine Express franchise remained with First. A new livery has been applied to Trans-Pennine trains and orders have been placed for new trains that will see the end of the old Northern Pacer bus-style trains.
Preston station is to have improvements as part of Virgin Rail’s £20m station improvement plan. The Preston element includes changes to the Ticket Area and new Ticket Vending Machines and a new entrance at Butler Street by platform 7 to improve customer flow. Retail opportunities are to be offered.
On the roads discussions are advanced on the Preston Western Distributor linking the M55 and Riversway and in Broughton the by-pass is being built. The completion of the dual carriageway from the M65 to the A59 east and west of Penwortham will make the missing link more obvious – the western Ribble crossing. Regular closures on the M6 due to road accidents is showing an increasing need for a relief road. Although it could be argued that the better roads become the further people will commute. Also the government insistence on building new homes regardless of apparent job opportunities is also adding to transport needs.
As this is written the M6 has been closed in both directions at Junction 31, which appears to have been started by a diesel spillage, and the West Coast Main Line is closed between Preston and Carlisle until midday. How much time for delays do you add in to your journeys?
New Roads, New Houses in and around Preston
As part of the City Deal, Preston will get new homes in the centre at Avenham and Winckley Square, plus new homes at the north west corner.
New roads including a Broughton by-pass and western link road from the M55 and potentially a Penwortham by-pass and later a new western bridge over the Ribble.
Couple that with the electrification of the railway and nearly 300 new trains on order, change is going to come.
J.Fishwick & Sons of Leyland cease trading
Disappointing news that J.Fishwick of Leyland will cease trading after 108 years. The last bus service was on Saturday 24th October 2015. An announcement on their website said that anyone who had paid a deposit on a holiday would be contacted separately and the payment was covered by an insurance bond. That must be relief to anyone who was worried about losing their money and it’s certainly to their credit that the company took this measure which must have cost them to take out.
An announcement reported in the Chorley Guardian said cashflow was the problem and it was becoming more difficult for small companies to operate. Stagecoach have taken over the routes and a bus labelled Stagecoach Merseyside was operating last week.
There are quite a lot of small companies operating buses and they do seem to move in and out of routes using small buses. It doesn’t look easy and there have been threats to remove subsidies for rural routes.
Fishwick began trading as a haulage company in 1907 but soon moved in to buses and in the 1960s into holiday trips. There are several buses in preservation carrying the green livery, one usually in the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland. Quite a surprise, sad feeling coupled with some annoyance to find they’ve gone. The world is a less varied place without them.
Read more on our website:
http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/Road/FishwickBuses.html
Transport Investment around Preston
On top of the Northern Hub which will deliver electrified rail for the rail links from Preston to Manchester via Bolton and via Wigan and to Blackpool we have fresh discussion on a ‘northern powerhouse’.
The Northern Powerhouse is the name given to a scheme that is intended to help revitalise the north of England and to rebalance the level of investment between the north and south. It will link 5 major cities of the north with ‘high speed’ rail, meaning over 125mph not the full standard over 200mph track but still possibly designated ‘HS3’. This will be on top of the high speed rail system HS2.
Unfortunately neither HS2 or ‘HS3’ reach Preston. Although Preston will get benefits from HS2 such as 30 minutes off the current London timing of just over 2hrs.
Also locally there is the Preston and Lancashire City Deal which will add some £400m to the local economy for rail, road and housing. This will provide local improvements to complement the bigger national improvements. The test is whether Preston can or should become a part of the Northern Powerhouse and what it offers for Preston and Preston offers it.
Towns like Blackburn and Blackpool will also want to know how they can benefit rather than being satellite towns. Preston has the benefit of being on the M6 and the West Coast Main Line although further south the town of Wigan is closer to the edge of the planned systems investment. Preston has a skills benefit being an existing major administration and education centre and having a long term advanced technology industry in aerospace and vehicles.
It does appear that all major regional investments lead to Manchester. This has some benefits to Preston but we need to get extensions to these routes to take in the hub of Lancashire, which is Preston.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Grade II Listing 1416042: Preston Bus Station
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/
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.
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
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.
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?