Macdonald Hotels has lost out the Accor in race to win the long-term management contract for the 24 hotels they sold to the Moorfield Real Estate Fund earlier this year. Moorfield has awarded a 20-year management contract to the French hotel group which will operate the hotels under its Mercure brand. The deal includes the Last Drop Village Hotel in Bolton and the Dunkenhalgh Hotel in Blackburn.
The Westmorland Gazette reports that the Kendal’s popular free summer bus service is under threat due to lack of funds. The Kendal Klipper operates a circular route around the town centre during the holidays. The council is said to be considering a number of options including sponsorship from private companies and reducing the frequency of services.
William Wordworth’s most famous poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud/Daffodils, has been set to rap to help attract young visitors to the Lake District. The video features MC Nuts, mascot of Ullswater Steamers, and was shot on the banks of Ullswater, in the grounds of the Sharrow Bay Hotel and in Grasmere. Wordsworth wrote the poem at Dove Cottage in 1804 after being inspired by daffodils on the banks of Ullswater.
Watch the video here.
California governor and action movie hero Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the Conservative Party Conference at Blackpool this summer. He has been invited by Tory leader David Cameron to give a speech on global warming.
Several hundred FC United hundred chartered a steam train on Saturday to watch their team win promotion to the UniBond League. They boarded the Rammy Rattler at Heywood station on the East Lancashire Railway and made the short journey to Ramsbottom, where they saw their team beat Ramsbottom United 2-1.
FC United was formed in 2005 by Manchester United supporters disgruntled with Malcolm Glazer’s takeover.
A new sculpture in Blackburn town centre will be officially unveiled today. The Braid, a 10m illuminated column by Simon Watkinson, is part of the town’s Sudell Cross improvement scheme. It has already been dubbed the ‘light sabre’ by locals.
Ancient byelaws banning cycling on Morecambe’s Promenade will be lifted on April 8. In 2005 Morecambe was designated a Cycling Demonstration town by the Department of Transport and received £1.5m of funding to encourage people to cycle.
Bolton looks set to get a new town centre swimming pool after Bolton Council and the University of Bolton reached an agreement to build a new leisure facility. The university will provide the site and the council has set aside £6.5 from its budget over the next 3 years for construction costs. The proposed site is situated on university’s Deane Campus.
Bolton town centre has been without a pool since the Water Place shut its doors in 2002.
Plans for a 157-bedroom hotel and an 869-space short-stay multi-storey car park at Liverpool John Lennon Airport have been given the green light by Liverpool City Council. Work is due to begin shortly and is expected to take 18 months to complete.
The hotel and car park will be built on the site of the existing car park opposite the terminal. They will be connected directly to the terminal by an enclosed bridge spanning the road in front of the terminal. A large video display screen will be mounted on the hotel exterior and will be used to promote events in the city.
Neil Pakey, Managing Director of Liverpool John Lennon Airport said, ‘With flights from over 60 scheduled destinations now serving Liverpool, this development is a natural progression of improved on site facilities to satisfy the needs of today’s 5 million passengers. Any international airport of our size needs a hotel adjacent to its terminal. This caters for both the inbound arriving passengers often coming in late in the evening, or for UK originating passengers with often very early departures in the morning. In terms of design we have added a large media screen to promote public art and we have also started to work with both the Southport Flower Show and the Tatton Flower Show in the hope we can bring some unique landscaping to the area. All in all it’s a very exciting development.’
The future of two North West attractions looks secure after their parent company was purchased by a European leisure company. Grant Leisure, the parent company of Blackpool Zoo and the Aquarium of the Lakes, was purchased on Monday by Parques Reunidos. The Madrid-based company is one of Europe’s largest leisure and theme park operators and runs a number of zoos, amusement parks and aquatic attractions. Grant Leisure was put up for sale by the Mice Group in January.