THING OF THE WEEK
CHRISTMAS PRESENT… Lancaster visitors and residents will have a new pub to stop at come the winter holiday, with Tite & Locke slated to open at Lancaster Railway Station in December. The Lancaster Brewery bar will sit on platform three of the station and have six rooms to enjoy your pint in. The pub’s impending arrival isn’t the only news out of the station – Network Rail announced today that it had finished work restoring a 121-year-old railway footbridge at the station, part of National Rail’s Great North Rail Project.
Delighted to be joining @CBRE_UK in #Birmingham next week to help grow strategic development opportunities https://t.co/3EviCEWmAM
— Louise Wyman (@LouiseWyman) September 8, 2021
WYMAN’S RETURN…You can’t keep a good woman down for long. Having been appointed to replace Eddie Smith as strategic director of growth and development in June 2020, things didn’t quite work out for Louise Wyman at Manchester City Council. She departed the authority in May, saying she wanted to be closer to her family in the Midlands. Wyman is now ready for her next venture – she joins CBRE as executive director for strategic development. Cynics would say her stint in Manchester forced her into the private sector but we simply say good luck.
Credit: Place North West
VIRTUAL MINISTERS…It was a little disappointing to see that the two Conservative politicians due to speak at this week’s Chartered Institute of Housing summit at Manchester Convention Centre couldn’t be bothered to make the trip. Instead, Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and housing minister Chris Pincher addressed the audience from their offices in Whitehall via video link in a quaint throwback to lockdown days. Amid criticism over the lack of progress of the government’s levelling up agenda, their presence may have gone some way to convincing those in attendance that they are halfway serious about delivering meaningful change. Shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell did show up, but that was to be expected – she is MP for the ward in which the event was staged after all.
Credit: Google Earth
SEFTON VS PEEL…Sefton Council Cllr John Fairclough is decidedly unimpressed after Peel Ports Group sent an open letter regarding National Highways’ proposed dual carriageway cutting through Rimrose Valley Park. Peel Ports Group chief executive officer Mark Whitworth wrote the A5036 Port of Liverpool Access Road was not a Peel Ports project and then explained the group’s enthusiasm for the road and how it would be a good thing. Calling the letter “equally misleading and misguided,” Fairclough said Whitworth’s note included out-of-date statistics and failed to address community concerns over the road, which Fairclough said would impact HGV vehicle pollution and destroy urban green space. Advocate group Save Rimrose Valley went one further, dubbing the letter “a PR disaster” and an “insult.”
Credit: Place North West
FISHY…It is happening. As first reported by Place North West, Sexy Fish is coming to Manchester. Lovers of posh Asian seafood will soon be able to stuff their faces in the former Armani unit in Spinningfields, where Sexy Fish owner Caprice Holdings has applied to Manchester City Council for a premises licence. The move is a huge fillip for the Manchester hospitality sector after an arduous 18 months and shows the city is capable of catching big fish.
