THING OF THE WEEK

HI VIS… The North – quite rightly – got rather excited this week when the government announced £45bn for the elusive Northern Powerhouse Rail, including a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool. However, it did not take long for cynicism to take hold, with many – quite rightly – adopting an “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach.

Who knows if it will ever happen. There more pressing questions at this stage like why does everyone on the press call photo above look so glum, and how come Steve Rotheram and Tracy Brabin didn’t have to wear hi-vis vests but Andy Burnham and David Skaith did?

---

STREETS… Former Manchester City Council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has become the latest person to have their name enshrined at First Street. Bernstein, who died in 2024, has been honoured with the naming of a street at the regeneration zone. Sir Howard Bernstein Approach has been christened in line with Ask Real Estate’s “place-naming protocol” for First Street, which is all about “recognising and celebrating people who have developed the legacy of ‘Manchesterness’”, according to Ask’s John Hughes.

Bernstein joins women’s rights activist Annie Horniman, author Isabella Banks, former chair of Central Manchester Development Agency James Grigor, and music mogul Tony Wilson on the list of Manchester icons with First Street streets named after them. Esteemed company indeed.

---

FISHY… If you have walked past the former Ibercia unit in Manchester’s Spinningfields recently you might have been forgiven for thinking that the business district is getting an aquarium. The long-vacant restaurant – which has played host to a series of meanwhile uses over recent months – will soon be transformed and the people behind the project have gone heavy on the fish decals.

Sadly, an aquarium is not on the cards and the only fish you’ll fine in the unit going forward will be dead ones wrapped in rice as Sticks’n’Sushi gears up for opening.

---

CULTURE VULTURES… Towns across the country have been invited to pitch to become the UK’s very first Town of Culture. The new government initiative has been set up as part of the Pride in Place programme aimed at moving the dial on the “everything is a bit rubbish vibe” that has set in over recent years.

There are more than a handful of North West towns that could have a good chance of winning, should they choose to apply. Prescot with its Shakespeare North theatre, Stockport with its thriving food scene, or perhaps Blackpool, whose annual illuminations are a definitive British cultural event.

The inaugural winner will be crowned in 2028 and will secure the opportunity to deliver a programme of cultural events. Where would you like to see crowned the very first Town of Culture?

---

TOUR DE NORTH WEST… In 2027, the world’s toughest race will return to these shores for the first time since 2014. Back then it was Yorkshire that welcomed the Tour de France to its streets and next year Tadej Pogačar and co will push off in Edinburgh before peddling down to Carlisle for stage one. Stage two will begin in Kendal and take in breath-taking Lake District views before heading south through Lancashire to Liverpool – finishing up with a sprint in front of the Three Graces. The third and final UK stage, before the race heads back to France, will begin in Welshpool and end in Cardiff, which we still care about, just not as much. Go cycling!