News Story Two

Friargate - where a new Tesco Express

will open in January with the potential

to affect local buisnesses on the street

It has been confirmed that the UK’s largest supermarket chain Tesco is behind plans to develop a suite in the Avenham area of Preston. The planned proposal, scheduled to be submitted to Preston’s Planning Committee (PCC) on Monday, would take the number of Tesco stores in Central Lancashire to ten.

The developer Brookhouse Group is still in talks with the chain, but there is confidence that the £80m deal will be passed by the PCC. It would mean that there could be two new stores opening in Preston in two years with the imminent opening of a Tesco Express on Friargate, which is due to be opened in January.

The number of jobs it could lead to is in the hundreds. Councillor Salim Desai, who also has a seat on the PCC, said: “I think with the new store you’re talking a couple of hundred, whereas the Express store you’re talking thirty with part-time jobs, so there will be students working there.”

However, with the increasing number of supermarkets in Central Lancashire there has also been a rise in the levels of opposition to them. Many local traders believe that they lose customers and business with each new opening. In a small survey involving 139 local people, 112 believe that the numbers of supermarkets in Central Lancashire is having too much of a negative effect on small, local traders.

Salim Desai - Planned Tesco site by cworswick

However, Mr Desai believes that supermarkets create healthy competition: “I think there is nothing wrong with healthy competition.”

One major benefit of having a large supermarket near the centre of the city is the increased levels of customers near the high street, which could lead to greater activity and a much-needed boost to the local economy. My Desai added: “I would welcome that. As part of the planning application we’re trying to create an access so that pedestrians can walk into the high street. I think it could give customers more choice.”

Of the UK’s four largest supermarket chains, including Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, there are currently 19 stores across Central Lancashire.

View The four main supermarket chains in the UK - Central Lancashire in a larger map

A map detailing the locations of the UK's four major supermarket chains in Central Lancashire

News Story One

Horse racing legends past and present gathered in huge numbers at Liverpool Cathedral to celebrate the life of trainer Ginger McCain. McCain, who died at the age of 80 in September, will be widely remembered for his training of three-time Grand National winner Red Rum.

Famous faces amongst the hundreds present included trainer Sir Mark Prescott and jockeys Jason Maguire and Graham Lee, whilst fans of racing and of McCain were said to total at least 400. Sir Bobby Charlton also attended.

Tributes were read out by Ladbrokes's Mike Dillon and the former Aintree managing director Charles Barnett for a man who is said to have rescued the Grand National during the 1970s when it was in danger of folding as a race altogether.

Ginger, who real name was Donald, holds the joint record with Fred Rimell for having trained four winners at Aintree, home to the Grand National. He also won it with Amberleigh House in 2004.

 Red Rum stature in Wayfarers Arcade

However, it was with Red Rum, who landed the National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, that Ginger gained legendary status within the horse racing world. In a remarkable partnership between a struggling McCain, who had become a taxi driver in Southport to fund his horse training career, and an injury-prone horse, the two began working on the sandy beaches of Southport.

Sir Peter O’Sullevan, dubbed ‘the voice of racing’, said, “It was because Ginger bought him and because Ginger trained on the sands at Southport that they became such a magic combo. They became a nationally acknowledged partnership.”

Sir Peter O'Sullevan tribute to Ginger McCain by cworswick

Away from Red Rum, Ginger built a reputation on a complete lack of political correctness and famous one-liners, with women on the wrong end of his estimations. O’Sullevan said in a tribute to McCain, “He used to make outrageous remarks. He used to pretend to be a misogynist, but most of his comments were tongue in cheek.”

Perhaps in a twist of fate, Ginger’s son, Donald Jnr, who has built a successful career following in his father’s footsteps as a horse trainer, trained Ballybriggs, the winner of the 2011 Grand National.

However, O’Sullevan believes that Red Rum’s three Grand National wins will never be beaten. “That was an absolutely prodigious achievement. After all, he competed in five Nationals, he won three and was second twice.”

Audio Skills Test

Following Manchester United's draw with Newcastle, if Manchester City beat Liverpool at Anfield and open up a seven-point gap will Manchester City go on to win the league?

I asked four people their thoughts.

Amy Hughes, 21, believes that despite the possibilty of Manchester United being seven points behind Manchester City, they still have a chance. Sam Ridings, 22, said that should City win at Anfield, the league race would be effectively over and Manchester would be crowned champions. Christopher Cox, 21, however thinks that United's experience in these situations will see them run Manchester City very close, but thinks the title race is too close to call. Richard Clarke, 26, also believes Manchester City's lack of experience and United's new-year form will lead them to their next league title.

Voxpop by cworswick

Video Skills Test

Following Lancashire Police Federation's revelation that up to 550 police officers will be lost from the streets due to £42m worth of cuts, I asked a girl what her thoughts were. I filmed in the dark as I believe this will be one of the main concerns as we head into the winter months.

UCLan students' predictions on tonight's friendly between England and Sweden

England face Sweden tonight at Wembley in what is their second friendly in four days. After shocking reigning world champions Spain with a 1-0 victory, Fabio Capello's new look side will aiming to secure back-to-back victories before Euro 2012 commences in the summer.

The last time both teams met was at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Joe Cole's sensational strike gave The Three Lions the lead, only for Henrik Larsson to snatch a late equaliser.

The following audio clips contain three students' thoughts on the game.

Liam, an English Literature second-year, praises Fabio Capello's choice to add more youth to the England side.

UCLan Student Predictions (England vs Sweden): Liam by bradwilks

Tom, a first year bio-medical student, thinks that the confidence gained from beating Spain on Saturday will lead England to victory against the Swedish.  

UCLan Student Predictions (England vs Sweden): audio by bradwilks

However James, second year graphic design student, believed Capello's tactics would lead to a draw.

UCLan Student Predictions (England vs Sweden): James by bradwilks

JN3800 Data Skills Test

Despite recent allegations that two footballers racially insulted opposition players, some of the worst affected towns across northern England are showing promising results in their fight against racism.

Luis Suarez and John Terry are currently under investigation by the Football Association authorities after two separate complaints were filed by two opposition players.

Whilst the Football Association has worked tirelessly to remove racism from the sport, should either player be found guilty then football will take a disappointing step backwards.

In an attempt to show whether racial incidents have been increasing or decreasing in England the above graph shows incidents across northern regions of England where over 1,000 racial incidents have been reported in between the years 2008-2011.

Territorial police forces have been actively attempting to rid the country of an old, dated form of discrimination, with most forces producing promising results. Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside have all seen year-on-year falls in the number of reported racial incidents, whilst Northumbria and West Yorkshire are the only regions to have reported rises in the last year. South Yorkshire reported a rise in 2009/10, yet saw a decrease this year.

Below are the full statistics on racial incidents in England and Wales:

Click here for full spreadsheet

The Guardian published the statistics on their Data Blog section of their website. The figures show a 1.4% drop in racial incidents over the past year.

Click here for full report

JN3800 Mapping Skills Test

View JN3800 Skills Test - Mapping in a larger map

The above map shows the local children around Preston. In the LEP, there were several children-related stories and I decided that I would use this as my theme. Two of the stories is of children excelling in the community, whilst the other two stories feature a child illness and a Labour Club under review through child safety concerns.

Images Skills Test - UCLan Building

Original Image:

100x100 Thumbnail:

400x300:

200x500:



These set of images show the C+T building, which belongs to the University of Central Lancashire. The initial image is the one that I took using the camera on my phone. It shows the whole building and some exterior excess, such as the road and another building attached to my focus building.

The first image, the 100x100 thumbnail, had to be cropped slightly, but very little was lost of the surroundings. Because the blue building is also part of the C+T building, I decided to crop the attached building on the right so as to leave intact as much of the original building as possible.

The second image, the 400x300 meant I had more space to use and create more of a natural focus – so the road and the attached building remained. As the sizing did not differ too much from that of the original image, the quality of the image remained.

Finally, the third image was slightly difficult. Because the emphasis is on the height of the image (200x500) it took me longer to figure out how I wanted to crop the image. Eventually, I decided to leave the ‘UCLan’ name and logo in the image because if it was cropped out of it then the viewer would find it almost impossible to gather what the image was portraying. Most of the excess around the building was lost, but if someone saw the new 200x500 image they would see the sign attached to a building and would understand that it was indeed a university building.