Made In Preston – the blog

I learnt the Welsh for cricket. Yes, it’s criced.  Pronounced crickedd probably.

What is the relevance of that?  England are playing the first test away, in Wales.

AT this moment England only need 100 runs to avoid an innings defeat with only the tail enders remaining. Anything other than defeat seems unlikely.

As it’s on Sky I havn’t seen any but you have to hand it to the Aussies they made it appear like they were playing a poor team when these are the best we have.  So what to do about it?  It seems England have no worthy bowlers so is it possible to develop a fielding plan to compensate or are there any alternative bowlers.  Is the captain up to it?  I’ve no idea, it seems that anything involving a bat or racket and England are out. Then again it’s only the first test and if a lesson is to be taught it’s best to get it early.

Yesterday had a look at the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool. It’s a small place, but not a bad building,  near North Station. At the moment there is a collection of photographs mounted in acrylic to give a high gloss look. The theme is ‘the world is a stage’. A collection of people who are involved in showbusiness but photographed outside their normal setting in isolation like an empty corridor. Several larger than life people from Las Vegas to Blackpool.   Not a bad presentation, didn’t take long to see and wouldn’t travel far just to see it. There is a local history gallery upstairs which doesn’t do Blackpool justice.

Then had a look in Blackpool library and its local history room and found some interesting stuff for the Preston website.  Blackpool library isn’t part of Lancashire library service so I can’t take out books, that’s one effect of unitary councils.

So Preston has a better library, art gallery and museum and it has 2 other museums and the local records office. Shame Blackpool can’t improve theirs as it has an interesting history.

I read in the LEP that a planning application has been submitted to build a marina, apartments, Tesco and nature reserve at Cottam. Sounds a good thing from reading it and having little knowledge of the area. I might wonder what size of Tesco and the nature reserve sounds neat if it’s accessible.  Planning applications are a bit of a laugh nowadays, there is always something about nature or accessibility and often masking some feature. A house near us was re-built with a very wide drive for ‘accessibility’ not that they hoped the house would be more marketable with a large drive and small garden.

Less of the cynicism. There are a lot of planning proposals around Preston at the moment. Tithebarn, Winckley, Flag Market and now this which is out of the centre.  I noticed on a recent visit that Blackpool has a lot of work in their centre as well including some amazingly large arch structures in one street for a sound and light display.  The Blackpool work is actually happening. However they don’t like Prestons ambitions and are protesting about Tithebarn. Where is all this money coming from?  At least it’s creating jobs and I guess that is also improving optimism about planning application.

Visited the new Barton Grange yesterday. It was a very hot day, about 28degC.   We’ve not been before and it was further towards Garstang than I expected,  just north of the turn off to Guys and through Bilsborrow. You’re impressed from the moment you arrive with it’s open feel, a brick surface on the large car park and a lot of elaborate metalwork.

Inside it was large, open and a decent temperature considering how hot it was outside. It had a lot of nice stuff on sale like most of these places;  furniture and accessories, patio furniture, gardening equipment. Biggish plant area nicely set out. Nice cafe and restaurant with outside seating by what might be a false stream, couldn’t tell. After going through the till you come to the Farmers Shop which contains a good range of quality foods nicely set out.  The gents loo has a special feature which you can buy a photo of.

It’s a bit difficult when you go to these places to know if they really are full of the things you’d buy as we went with no real intention of buying anything except a snack and a drink. I did notice that the Farmers Shop was top price as I buy Black Sheep beer and have never seen it that expensive but if someone spends all that money to make a place worth visiting it has to be paid for. We bought some bread, cheese and fruit.

Overall it’s a nice place to go yet somehow it seemed bigger on style than content. The designer has done a good job and it has a plush feel. I’ll have another look sometime. A worthy destination for the region.

The Preston Council Leaders blog says the Planning Committee will be sitting on Wednesday’s 8th and 15th of July to assess the Tithebarn planning application.

I have some doubts although overall it sounds good enough.

Liverpool One cost about £1bn which is about 40% more than Prestons £700m. It’s size is about 42 acres compared with  32 acres for Preston which is about 30% more.  So Prestons development is cheaper per acre, if that means anything. I’ve read that Liverpool One had some cost overruns although the figures I’ve seen quoted aren’t that clear and are around 10% which doesn’t seem overly excessive.

The Leader of Preston Councils blog says the developers have assured the council it will be available and suitable for the Guild Celebration. I guess there is a risk but that part of Preston didn’t feature much in the Guild I didn’t think except for the bus station and car park. A shuttle bus service from a car park on Moor Park might be needed. Is that in the budget?

Shame about the old bus station it’s a unique and impressive building to look at, although I recall when I used it I thought it was hard to access and you couldn’t see the bus destination boards. Reversing buses didn’t seem such a good idea either.

Saturday 20th June, a sunny day after early cloud, parked at Deepdale and wandered round the National Football Museum. Thought it had improved since my last visit. Seemed a lot to take in and so I focussed on the last 50 years. Watching a video of George Best made me think that he was better than Ronaldo, although it’s hard to compare as the game is different now.  Best had such balance and the ball seemed glued to his feet. Compare a football shirt of the 1960’s with one of today, a bit like comparing aunties knitted cardigan with a brand name made from fine material. Nice room for Tom Finney. Enjoyed creating my own football show, only a bit confused. North Ends ground is looking good now although the new stand seems an odd fit, presumably to keep its line down against the houses behind, shame really.

Then a short walk up to Fulwood Barracks to see the Military Show. The barracks are a mid 19th century uncompromising military building, attractive in its way. Although it takes a large area it’s something that must be preserved.  There is a large square surrounded by functional terrace style accommodation made from large blocks of stone.  I’ve often wanted to see the Queens Lancashire Regiment museum and it was open. Not much room to move with the crowds from the show so didn’t linger. Once again there is a lot to take in and I end up with more questions than answers. The museum is a bit dark and varnished wood in style. Explanations of battles and displays of medals, a banquet hall and chapel. I had read there is a booklet about the regiment, and have seen it on Ebay, but I didn’t see it in the museum, there isn’t a shop.

So a walk round the display outside; several recruiting displays including one for the infantry enabling a feel of different types of guns, a lot of boys round here. A boxing ring with a tiny boy giving a soldier a real miniature pasting. Boxing separates men from boys but in this case the tiny boy was really going for it, till the soldier raised himself off his knees a bit and the boy suddenly realised it wasn’t all plain sailing. An RAF cockpit was popular and so was the Challenger Tank and Armoured Personnel Carrier. The 105mm gun attracting a crowd.  Younger boys enjoyed the horns in the Land Rovers.  A military band and pipe band were playing. There was a marching and action display later but I left before it started. Seemed a popular day.

Exeter University does a survey of Universities each year that is published in the Times newspaper. I thought I’d have a look at this and produce a laymans view.

The criteria are; Student Satisfaction, Research Quality, Entry Standards, Student / Staff ratio, Services and facilities spend, completion, good honours, graduate prospects. These are all scored.

Top is Oxford with a total of 1000 points. It isn’t immediately obvious how this 1000 was calculated although I guessed it is the benchmark and the others would be a percentage of this top figure for easy comparison. However a simple calculation resulted in the university with 504 points only having about 40% of Oxfords total so I havn’t persevered to work it out.

It must be difficult for Exeter as they did the exercise and got it independantly assessed. However they rose significantly in the table. Their out-performance in student satisfaction being compensated by low entry standards. Does any university look at this and say we can improve a bit here and jump up?

Overall the table looks like a useful indicator but I’d be wary of being too precise in analysing it.  For example I’d be wary of subjective measures like student satisfaction.  Facilities spend is another skewed area as a university building a new extension will get more than one that’s just finished building one. Do you want to study on a building site?  Student / staff ratio might hide other factors like part-time or distance learners. In general the table order looks like you’d expect it to. Without advice on interpreting this my own method is to look at individual statistics to see if any stand out and take all of it as an indication and not as an absolute.

Out of 114 organisations UCL was 78th a fall of 15 places.  A total of 392 points compared to Oxfords 1000.  To maintain their position they would need another 40 points which might be in the level of error.  Interestingly Graduate Prospects at UCL would put them well up the table which is something I’d be interested in as a student. On the other hand completion and entry standards are a bit lower than those around it and student staff ratio is a bit higher. So if you do complete prospects are better than many, at that time.

Oxford and Cambridge are in a league of their own, like Manchester United and Chelsea at football. You then come to those with good research quality and consistent spread with points over 600. Then a middling ruck and some floating adrift at the bottom due to a couple of bad scores.

If I was a student I’d find this interesting yet I’d know what sort of place I wanted to go to. Take York – nice city, newish buildings, good reputation, same for Lancaster. Or would I want a big city. If I was a parent I’d say Lancaster(23rd a fall of 4), in the country. If I was a student I’d say Manchester(24th a rise of 3) in the heart of the city. Well maybe anyway, I should be thinking about intellect. Depends on your subject and your results and if you can make an impression.  I have a degree from the Open University and it isn’t on the list. Having left school with nothing there is still a way in with the OU although it’s a lot more expensive now than when I did it.

The birds have been well fed in our garden for several years though protection from pests is a constant battle. The hanging seed container gets unwanted visitors like squirrels and yesterday a baby mouse had climbed up the post around 10am and was brazenly eating sunflower seeds. The seed tray on the ground also gets squirrels but more recently woodpigeons. These are persistent and last night there were 3 of them, one on each neighbours roof and ours. Smaller birds have no chance as they buzz them or just push them out. Now I’ve got a cover that goes over the seedtray when they arrive. It takes the fun out of it as the visiting small birds are getting fewer. The squirrels have got fewer as well and I wondered if someone was relocating them. After seeing the mouse hygiene steps are being put into place.

The woodpigeon is a very plump bird with a small head and its wings are noisy in flight. They’re very aggressive between themselves and have frequent wing flapping battles. The male is quick to make amorous bowing and rotating movements to any female but when it comes to food the male pushes the female out till he’s finished. Despite this aggression they’re shy with humans and leave at the smallest movement, but soon come back.  When they are nervous they make a small sideways edging movements that get bigger till they decide to go. They always completely clean all the seeds and any very small bits and will try to swallow pieces of bread that are far too big. Brassicas and other gardeners delights are favourites and young cabbage can be decimated.  Their drinking habits are unusual for a bird as they are able to suck whereas most birds collect water in their beaks and tip their heads back. As well as flying, walking is one of their activities enabling them to investigate every area of the garden. Despite their size they get into tight positions and will repeatedly try to get to unattainable food. They have a range of sounds from a low grunt to loud cooing.  They hide in trees and find different stealthy ways to approach protected areas. Although a problem they’re amusing and interesting birds.  It’s still raining.