THING OF THE WEEK

MUSH… Scott Lydon, director at Clancy Consulting, has just returned from a very special fundraising endeavour. Not content with running a marathon or sitting in a bath of baked beans, he headed to the arctic circle to take on a different kind of endurance event in the name of charity. Lydon, along with six others and a team of huskies, traversed 180km of icy tundra to raise cash for the Brain Tumour Charity navigating frozen lakes, marauding moose, and a sickness bug that tested the mettle of the intrepid explorers more than the cold.

Credit: via Ashurst Comms

PUB… Band on the Wall is expanding, it has emerged. The Manchester music venue announced this week it had acquired the Rose and Monkey pub next door in September last year. They kept that quiet. The deal was done thanks in part to backing from not-for-profit Figurative, which specialises in impact investment in the cultural and creative sector. The Rose and Monkey, which dates back to the 1700s, is located right next door to Band on the Wall, so the deal makes sense. Next to that is Smithfield Market Tavern, another much-loved Manchester boozer; could that be the venue’s next acquisition?

Credit: Google Earth

MASH-UP… Marketing suites at large residential schemes normally just get dismantled once they are no longer needed. However, at Potato Wharf in Manchester’s Castlefield district, the two-storey structure that was once filled with show apartments is being readied for a new era. The 16,000 sq ft building is to be converted into four Air BnB style flats – two on the ground floor and two on the first floor – which will no doubt delight residents living in the scheme itself.

Credit: James Feaver on Unsplash

STARTS… If you had to guess which North West council area was the most active in terms of housing starts on site, which would you plump for? Manchester, perhaps, with its never-ending stream of tall towers. Or maybe pro-development Stockport. However, government statistics released this week show a somewhat surprising name at the top of the table that charts starts on site in the final quarter of 2024. Cheshire East, anyone?

The Royal Arcade site still awaits a long-term direction. Credit: CEC

ROYAL FLUSH… While Cheshire East is leading the way when it comes to housebuilding, it is lagging in other respects. Consultation is now open on a meanwhile use for Crewe’s Royal Arcade site, which was levelled in anticipation of a leisure-led scheme that bit the dust, leaving a new bus station and much-derided car park the only parts of a mixed-use regeneration project to thus far see the light of day. Long story short, it’s going to be open space, with grassed areas, paved space, and a new lit footpath linking the bus station to the junction of Victoria Street and Queensway. Residents – those who can keep it polite, anyway, given a developer was chosen for the project way back in summer 2017 – can feed back to Cheshire East Council on topics such as seating types, gates, and types of activities they’d like to see. What an opportunity.

The club wants to go from six to four floodlights. Credit: planning documents

LET THERE BE LIGHT…  It’s not all about Everton’s move and Manchester United’s fancy New Trafford CGIs. Down where it matters, Clitheroe FC has triggered a project to upgrade its floodlight situation, seeking an eco-friendly LED solution. PD Construction Consultants is on the case for the club, based at EcoGiants Stadium on Shawbridge Street. Plans have now been submitted to Ribble Valley Council for the replacement of the existing 30-year old six-pylon set-up with four new masts, slightly shorter than the current ones at 15m apiece.