THING OF THE WEEK
SAPLING… A sapling from the Sycamore Gap tree, which was illegally chopped down in 2023 in an act of vandalism Banksy would have been proud of, has been planted at Wray Castle in the Lake District. Saplings from the felled tree have been gifted to each of the country’s 15 National Parks to ensure its legacy lives on beyond its Northumberland roots.
Lucass celebrates his sub-2:30 Manchester marathon. Credit: via Martin Lucass
MARV… Skip this section if you don’t want to feel inadequate. The name Martin Lucass will be familiar to readers of THING as we have, on numerous occasions, reported on his running exploits. Lucass, Marv to his friends, is director of environment and sustainability at Lucion Delta-Simons but when he isn’t doing that you will most likely find him running quickly around a city. On Sunday 18th he came 35th overall in the Manchester Marathon with a time of 2:29:48 and just seven days later headed to London to run another 26.2 miles at a more-than-decent clip. Impressive and sickening in equal measure.
Attendees at a sod cutting event waved goodbye to years of delays. Credit: via Cheshire East Council
ROAD… After decades of false dawns you could have been forgiven for thinking that the Middlewich Bypass was never going to start let alone finish. But this week the unthinkable happened and work on the 1.6-mile Cheshire road project got underway. Those who said they would believe it when they saw it had no choice but to believe it as “the never-ending story of a town’s desperate dream for 1.6 miles of tarmac” – as a Cheshire Live headline said back in 2023 – finally came to pass.
The move is likely to upset landlords. Credit: PNW
LANDLORD… If anyone needs a stiff drink in a sun-drenched beer garden this weekend it is landlords, who have had a bruising week. Upward-only rent reviews for commercial properties have been banned after the English Devolution and Empowerment Bill received royal assent. The move comes despite warnings from the industry about the potential impacts of scrapping UORR, which landlords use as a means of staying ahead of inflation.
The government hopes the ban will “keep small businesses running, boost local economies and job opportunities, and help end the blight of vacant high streets”, it has said previously. Residential landlords are also feeling the pinch today after the Renters Rights Act came into force. New rules ban no-fault evictions and limit rent rises. Some commentators are predicting a mass exodus of landlords from the market while others have welcomed efforts to rebalance the relationship between landlord and tenant.
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FUNERAL MARCH… A late 19th century Welsh mausoleum and the former Strand Railway Station in Barrow-in-Furness are on nearing the end of their days, warned the Victorian Society this week. The two grade two-listed buildings joined the society’s growing Endangered Buildings list this year due to their visible decline and neglect from owners. If no intervention is made, these buildings will continue to deteriorate, becoming increasingly unsafe. For their sake, we hope the requiem has yet to play for these two and that they get the attention they deserve.
