Preston .

[grassroots]

Walked around Preston today , the city centre was spotlessly clean , not a match stick in sight . An absolute pleasure to see such a clean and pleasant city centre , well done Lancashire Council , take note Sefton Council and get cracking on Southport town centre it's a pig stye . And a disgrace.

[RobinC]

It's not just the council - we also have a very active BID group that do their bit, either by providing extra cleaning, such as steam cleaning chewing gum, and putting retailers concerns to the council to get improvements. Having said that, the new market is looking very good, and now that Lune Street is 2 way, the traffic problems in Fishergate seem to be easing. If there are any budding photograhers, the old post office in the city centre is about to be developed as an up market hotel, by the people who run the James St Hotel in Liverpool, and on March 8th they are having an open day for people to take some shots before the redevelopment starts.

From their twitter feed

Thurs 8th March - Harris Hotel opens up it's doors to the people of Preston.

If you're a local photographer, blogger, historian or anyone with an interest in our plans & would like to have a look around and speak with @LawKenwright please email zoe.delaney@signatureliving.co.uk

Preston is on the up. (at last!)

[chrismatt.]

Many of the Lancashire towns are on the up. Lancashire County Council know how to run a business.

Another reason why Southport should be in Lancashire not Merseyside,

[salus.populi]

Surely Preston comes under Preston City Council not Lancashire County Council.

[Ceam]

Maybe the have litter police that don't get insulted every time they do their job?

[blackys dad]

Surely Preston comes under Preston City Council not Lancashire County Council.

I might be wrong but I think Lancashire county council are based in Preston?

[said]

Preston is on the up. (at last!)[/QUOTE]

I have not been to Preston in a while - the traffic was always very congested when I did go there. The old Post Office building is a fantastic historical structure which I sincerely hope will not become a victim of the modern day architects who do not seem to have progressed beyond kindergarten scribbles of houses. Is the parking issue any easier in Preston than it is in Southport? Given the two councils to compare, Lancashire/Sefton - Lancashire does seem to have its head screwed on.

[RobinC]

Looking at the hotel in Liverpool, which was the old White Star Line offices, the hotel company has done an excellent job of transforming an almost derelict building into a modern hotel, whilst keeping much of the character of the original. Hopefully they will do the same with the old PO - they don;t need to go too far - I remember queuing up for ages in the old PO to get served and not always receiving the best in customer service.

Car parking is OK - not a lot of free places, unless you park at the bottom of the hill and walk up - if you can find a place near the Continental Pub by the river, it is a very pleasant 10 minute walk up through the park and the newly refurbished Winckley Sq. Plenty pay for car parks in the city centre. The Park and Ride off Strand Road gives a good regular service up to the city centre, or from Southport the X2 bus is very quick, has wifi, charging points for phones, leather seats and after Banks travels straight along the main road with only a few stops. I'm not saying it is shopping Nirvana - far from it, still many empty shops and homeless in the streets, as in most towns, but for the first time in many years there is a sense of optimism and improvement, driven by the local businesses and the BID team.

On Valentine's Day I walked up Fishergate at 8.30 to find the whole street covered in painted red hearts and Valentine's balloons tied to trees and lamposts - an initiative by a local small city centre accommodation site (No 10 Preston) - put a smile on most peoples faces, and got loads of social media coverage. I think they were promoting "romantic" nights away in their business.

Then you have the Fishergate Bollard twitter account - someone taking the wazz out of a council cock up, and turning it into a media star - you may have seen the bollard featured on local news last week. It is basically moaning about the council, but in a very humorous way, that people warm to.

Yes, at the most the city has a buzz about it that is lacking in Southport - which is a shame - Peaky Blinders gets plenty of publicity and social media coverage, perhaps more businesses could get behind similar campaigns. It is an odd business environment we are in at the moment - big professional ads are fine, but if you can find a niche you can gets lots of PR with little spend - seems to work well - The Fishergate Bollard news last week was even reported in the Ugandan press!

[slothy]

We went to Preston on Tuesday to visit the new glass enclosed market. The indoor market has closed and a lot of the food stalls and eateries have moved in to the glass market. There are still open stalls behind the glass market. The other part of the market over the road is having shipping containers as stalls. They are calling this the Box Market.

I believe the indoor market is going to be demolished and a cinema and restaurant complex built there. If they demolish the market car park to build a new car park (which I think might be happening but I could be wrong) where the heck are all the cars going to park in the meanwhile. Think it will be bedlam.

The new toilets in the glass market are very nice. Think there was only 3 of them but I've read on the internet that there's going to be 5. The downside is that they're flippin' Unisex toilets! Okay, toilets we have in Southport and at carboot sales are unisex but are outside and you can stand away from them whilst waiting in a queue. In Preston Market men, women and children are queuing inside in a small enclosed space right next to the toilets (so no room to stand back whilst queuing) and it felt wrong and embarrassing.