News Centre

Blackpool Zoo’s Education Academy has been hailed top class after picking up an award at the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) 50th Anniversary ceremony. The Lancashire attraction took home the Silver Award in the BIAZA Education Awards Category after it was recognised for its Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award Course, which […]

Two sporting legends have received Honorary Fellowships from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Wasim Akram, former Lancashire County Cricket Club captain, and Blackburn born Carl Fogarty, accepted the prestigious award today, Wednesday, in front of a packed audience at Preston’s Guild Hall. Known as the ‘Sultan of Swing’ for his left arm deliveries, Wasim […]

 Former postgraduate alumna accepts prestigious honour The distinguished Preston-born national news broadcaster Ranvir Singh has been named as the new Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). The announcement was made by Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the University Board David Taylor as graduating students received their awards in front of proud parents during Monday […]

The Barton Grange Hotel in Preston, Lancashire is sticking to its mantra of continual development this year, with a £340 000 refurbishment of 21 bedrooms in its main house now completed, and corridor renovations to be finished by mid-September.  This family-owned property has injected £670 000 of refurbishment funds into the business over the last […]

Solita, one of Manchester’s most popular bar and grill restaurants is set to open the doors to its eagerly awaited fourth venue, SoLIta Preston on Friday 29th July. This follows a soft launch period where 50 members of staff mostly from the Preston area will fine tune and test the restaurant's kitchen and facilities. With […]

A brand new conference centre could form the next step in the revival and regeneration of Blackpool's visitor economy. On Monday 18 July Blackpool Council Executive will discuss plans for the new facility at the historic Winter Gardens Complex.  If the Executive agrees to progressing the plans, Blackpool Council will formally submit bids for external funding […]

A Lancashire food hero has added another prestigious national award to her company’s growing collection, as she picks up the ‘Oscar’ of the hospitality world.   Joycelyn Neve, managing director of the award-winning Seafood Pub Company, won the Pub and Bar award at this year’s Catey awards, fighting off strong competition from Peter Borg-Neal of Oakman […]

Clitheroe based wine merchants D. Byrne & Co have just received two major retail awards at the International Wine Challenge. The business has won the awards for best Regional Wine Merchant of the Year for Northern England and the national award for leading Small Independent Wine Retailer in the UK. Joseph Byrne attended a glamorous […]

Blackburn Cathedral is preparing for a landmark moment in its history when the Archbishop of York visits to officially open the new Cathedral’s Cloisters. The development sees the first cloisters to be built at a UK cathedral for over 500 years and also marks the final portion of the large scale regeneration of the areas […]

The Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal has already helped to create more than 1,500 new homes and 753 new jobs in the past two years. These jobs have been created through the development of over 9,500 sq m of new commercial space and the construction of new roads. In the last two years, […]

In the 2014 Anholt Nations Brand Index Survey, one of the two areas of relative weakness for Britain for Chinese visitors was around perceptions of ‘welcome’. As part of our ongoing training programme, Marketing Manchester is aiming to address this by running a series of China Welcome courses over the next 6 to 12 months […]

The latest stage of improvement work along the A582 will go ahead at the Pope Lane roundabout. The existing roundabout will be converted into a traffic signal-controlled 'crossroad' junction with additional lanes created on each of the four approaches. This work will provide extra capacity to improve traffic flow at the junction and on the […]