Plans to transform Burnley into a university town are fast taking shape as work on new student accommodation changes the town centre skyline.
A lattice of steelwork is being created next to Sandygate Square which will provide the foundation for a 136-bed building with car parking to provide high-quality student accommodation. On the ground floor there will be units available for shops, cafes or offices.

It is part of the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) plans to expand student numbers in Burnley from 400 to 4,000 by 2025. It complements recent investment by UCLan at nearby Victoria Mill, including state-of-the-art medical teaching facilities. The building is due to be completed by late summer 2020 ready for its first student intake.

Council leader Charlie Briggs said: “It’s exciting to see the steelwork going up and the new accommodation taking shape. “It will help support UCLan’s ambitious expansion plans for Burnley and attract more students to our town which will have wider benefits for our local economy. You only have to look at other places with thriving universities to see the economic and social benefits that brings and we want Burnley to see those benefits too.”
UCLan Dr Ebrahim Adia, Provost at UCLan Burnley, said: “This purpose-built student accommodation on the banks of the canal, adjacent to the university’s Victoria Mill, is key to fulfilling our exciting plans to deliver an outstanding university experience in Burnley.

“Watching the new accommodation take shape sends out a clear message of UCLan’s commitment to attracting a new generation of students to the town as well as boosting economic and social growth in the area.”

The accommodation is being developed in partnership by the council, UCLan and Barnfield Investment Properties.The council will receive an income from rent and UCLan will run the facility on the council’s behalf.

‘The Bee Centre’ is a multi-award-winning, centre of excellence for bee-related education and training.

Based near Preston, the organisation works with customers from across the world to raise awareness of bees and their importance to our environment.
They also run beekeeping courses for hobbyists and professionals alike; incorporating their unique approach to ethical and sustainable beekeeping. The organisation currently manages over 150 colonies of honeybees across the North West and North Wales.

Public interest in bees (and other pollinators) has grown considerably in recent years. At their visitor centre in Samlesbury, ‘The Bee Centre’ delivers education and awareness to the public throughout the year.

This ranges from live talks and demonstrations to their award-winning ‘Bee Experience’. This popular event provides a 90-minute immersion onto the world of the honeybee, for those who are brave enough to put on a beekeeping suit and accompany the beekeeper into the apiary. There is also a huge, indoor, glass hive where visitors can get up-close-and-personal with the bees in complete comfort and safety. Entry and parking are free. For those interested in learning to keep honeybees successfully, ‘The Bee Centre’ runs beekeeping courses ranging from beginner to advanced levels. Their practical, hands-on courses are well respected, professionally run and receive excellent feedback. They are usually delivered at their purpose-built training apiary which is believed to house the most diverse collection of working hives in the UK. ‘The Bee Centre’ is also the regional training hub for beekeepers and bee farmers wishing to gain professional qualifications through the Bee Farmers’ Association.

‘The Bee Centre’ works with schools to help educate children about bees (and other pollinators), habitats, biodiversity and the environment as part of their curriculum.

They have an extensive programme of support which includes both school trips to their facility in Samlesbury as well as visits to schools, to deliver talks and activities. The latter is a popular option as it reduces the transport costs associated with school trips. They even have a special, child-proof, portable beehive which keeps the bees safe and securely contained, whilst remaining visible through the shatterproof glass walls.

For schools that have space available, ‘The Bee Centre’ can work with them to establish hives on site and to set up school beekeeping clubs. The organisation has partnered with Jackon UK, a leading manufacturer of insulation materials to the construction industry. With Jackon’s support, ‘The Bee Centre’ can offer warm, lightweight, polystyrene hives as part of a heavily subsidised package to get schools started.

They can also provide beekeeping suits, equipment and The Bee Centre’s very own, locally bred, Lancashire bees. These girls are of a good temperament and ‘well behaved’, making them ideal for keeping in schools. They are also suited to our northern climate and overwinter well. More information about bees, beekeeping, planting for bees and much more can be found at www.TheBeeCentre.org.

A Northern Moor restaurant has been served with a penalty of more than £1,000, after being prosecuted for fly-tipping by Manchester City Council.
Scanditalia Limited admitted responsibility for a mound of dumped waste which was discovered by a council officer on land to the rear of its premises on Sale Road in July 2018. Officers investigating the fly-tip spoke to builders at the site of the offence, who explained that they were completing refurbishment work to convert the building into a restaurant and were waiting for a skip to be delivered for disposal of the waste.
The builders were given a deadline for the skip to be delivered and told that officers would return to check that the waste had been cleared from the council-owned land.

Officers followed up by visiting the site on two occasions in August 2018, but found that rather than being cleared away as promised, the pile of waste had increased. On further investigation, evidence was retrieved from within the waste, linking it to Scanditalia Limited, before the waste was cleared by the council. Investigators invited Scanditalia Ltd to attend an interview under caution, but received no response to their written request and the firm was subsequently prosecuted.

At a Manchester Magistrates Court hearing on 19 July 2019, Scanditalia’s representative blamed the contractors who had been employed to carry out the refurbishment work for the offence, saying they believed their contractors would dispose of all waste correctly. They also claimed not to have received the letters which were sent to their registered office inviting them to attend an interview under caution in time to respond.

However, the company accepted their responsibility for not having systems in place to prevent the offence from happening. After pleading guilty to fly-tipping, Scanditalia Ltd was fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £590, plus a victim surcharge of £50 – a total penalty of £1,140.

Manchester City Council is investing an additional £500,000 in anti-flytipping resources during 2019/20, which is being invested in officers on the ground and in resources to help deter and detect offenders. So far this year, the council has brought 80 successful prosecutions for fly-tipping and related offences, while also seizing three vehicles which were involved in fly-tipping.

Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, said: “There are simply no excuses for fly-tipping and the council’s dedicated officers are constantly working to take offenders to court for these selfish crimes.

Scanditalia failed in their legal duty to ensure that their waste was dealt with appropriately and deserved to be prosecuted, so I’d like to thank our officers on the ground for making sure this offence was detected and ultimately heavily penalised.

“Illegally dumping waste in our neighbourhoods is harmful to Manchester residents’ quality of life, which is why catching the culprits remains one of our top priorities.”

A review of the HS2 rail project has been cautiously welcomed by Lancaster City Council, as it presses ahead with its calls for the city to be a primary stopping station. The Government has recently published a review to examine the costs and benefits of the HS2 rail project with a “go or no-go” decision by the end of the year. Concerns have already been raised about the future of HS2 and the effect that the scrapping of the project could have on infrastructure and the growth of the northern economy.

As the rail network is vital to the economic prosperity and competitiveness of the Lancaster district, the city council is already actively involved in discussions with local politicians, Lancashire County Council as transport authority for the district, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, and major business leaders regarding HS2, and the potential impacts for the district. As part of these discussions the city council passed a motion in December 2018 re-stating its position that Lancaster’s mainline station should be a primary stopping station served by HS2 trains. This would provide improved access for businesses, organisations, residents and visitors to the Lancaster District. Its inclusion as a primary stopping station will also bring with it the potential to improve future transport connections to Morecambe and to the proposed Eden Project North (and the multi-million pound tourism economy this will generate) as well as to the world-class Lancaster University. Lancaster is currently identified as one of the existing railway stations where some HS2 services would stop, but the final timetables for HS2 services are not yet fixed. The recent award of the West Coast Partnership (WCP) rail franchise to First Trenitalia West Coast Rail will start a lengthy process to determine the actual HS2 and WCP service timetable. Yesterday’s announcement by Government that there will be a comprehensive review of the HS2 project provides an opportunity to re-evaluate the primary stations and reinforce Lancaster City Council’s view that Lancaster should be among them.

The council is also of the view that the longer-distance rail network, the regional rail network and the local rail network need to be considered together. This means not only safeguarding existing services and improving capacity from Lancaster along the West Coast line, but also improving connectivity to other locations, including Morecambe, Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire.

The council has been working with specially-appointed rail consultants since last year to help support the case for Lancaster retaining its status as an HS2 stopping station without impacting on the number of passenger services on the West Coast, thus helping develop the thriving regional economy. Coun John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for planning and transport, said: “We have huge opportunities for business, leisure and tourism growth in the Lancaster district. It is critical therefore that Lancaster has a HS2 stop so that the full potential of that growth is supported by sustainable transport networks.

“We also have space for crew changes and to switch rolling stock so I would urge the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps to visit us at his earliest convenience and review the opportunities we offer as well as the risks of not doing it.”