Plans to demolish Accrington train station and replace it will a £2.5 million environmentally-friendly version have been approved by Lancashire County Council. The new station will use electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels, and will use rainwater in sinks and toilets.
The continuing bad weather has led to the cancellation of yet another festival in the North West. After inspecting the site at Witton Park yesterday, officials from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, have cancelled this weekend’s Arts in the Park festival. A smaller concert is being organised at King George’s Hall featuring as many acts as possible from original event.
Blackburn’s Mela Festival has been cancelled because of muddy conditions at the festival site. The town’s annual Asian festival was due to be held at Witton Park on July 7-8. It will be replaced by a 6-hour music festival on Sunday July 7 at King George’s Hall.
The Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board held its annual awards ceremony at the De Vere Heron’s Reach hotel in Blackpool last week. The winners were:
Bed and Breakfast of the Year: Riverside Barn, Ribchester
Small Hotel of the Year: The Millstone at Mellor, Mellor
Large Hotel of the Year: Lancaster House Hotel, Lancaster
Small Visitor Attraction of the Year: ILPH Penny Farm, Blackpool
Large Visitor Attraction of the Year: Blackpool Zoo
Caravan Holiday Park of the Year: Sunset Park, Hambleton
Self Catering Holiday of the Year: Clough Bottom Farm Cottages, Bashall Eves
Taste of Lancashire and Blackpool Award: Kwizeen Restaurant, Blackpool
Business Tourism Award of the Year: Bartle Hall Country Hotel, near Preston
Best Tourism Experience of the Year: Keeper for the Day, Blackpool Zoo
Best Tourism Business Newcomer: The Fat Giraffe, Padiham
Blackburn with Darwen Council is to introduce free short-stay car parking in a bid to revitalise town centre shopping. Council leaders hope the measure can be introduced within the next couple of weeks. Motorists currently pay 50p for 30 minutes and 90p for one hour.
Blackburn with Darwen Council has applied (to itself) for planning permission to turn the former Lewis Textile Museum into a centre for rehabilitating former drug addicts.
The council closed the museum in 2006 as part of a supposed cost cutting exercise. Its collections are now housed at the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.
The Lancashire Telegraph reports that the savings made by closing the museum amounted to £23,000, while the conversion to a rehabilitation centre will cost £500,000. This doesn’t seem like cost cutting to us.
Shaun Woodward, Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism, visited the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery today. The visit comes just days after the collections from the former Lewis Textile Museum went on display in a new gallery at the museum.
The North West fared extremely well at the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2007, the country’s tourism equivalent of the Oscars. A ceremony at the Banqueting Hall in London held on Wednesday saw the national award for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism go to Sir Paul McCartney and the city of Liverpool.
Gold Winners included the Number One in Blackpool (Bed and Breakfast of the Year), Stanley House near Blackburn (Small Hotel of the Year) and the Chester Grosvenor (Large Hotel of the Year).
Silver Awards went to the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester (Large Visitor Attraction of the Year) and the Low Wood Hotel in Windermere (Business Tourism Award).
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.
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.