Saturday 25 February 2012

Preston 999 Call Centre is Moving to Serve Wider Remit.

Preston fire service's emergency-call centre is uprooting to Cheshire.

Whereas currently it serves Lancashire from its base in Fulwood in Preston, soon the new call centre in Warrington will serve Cumbria and Cheshire as well.

This move has been criticised by the Fire Brigade's Union on a number of points. One of their members, Kevin Deacon, told me over the phone the move is being done to cut savings with less staff. He also told me that the new GPS technology the new hub will have is currently already being used in the centre in Preston.

The Labour government, in power before the coalition, initiated the plans for this new hub. The idea was scrapped however because of the costs.

I was able to visit the fire service's emergency call centre in Fulwood, and talk to a spokeman there about the plans. He provides the 'official' point of view:

Monday 20 February 2012

Preston North End FC vs Hartlepool FC

PNE's game against Hartlepool on Valentine's day was not exactly a lovely game to be at.
(That's the 16th of February for any of you unromantic types.)
I took the opportunity to ask some of the public how they felt about the game:

Pnevox mixdown by cityzengeorge

My personal opinion was that a rather flat game of football was won by one fantastic shot. Danny Mayor in the 76th minute pulled something really special out of the bag. Preston should take more shots around the edge of the box, as their attacks look rather bland and unthreatening. PNE had only 4 shots compared to Hartlepool's 15.

The home fans are crying out for more action under the new manager. You can feel it in the atmosphere. A couple of fans summed up the whole game, singing sarcastically- 'One shot One Goal, One shot One goal.'

(Some audio clips of the atmosphere in the home end to come.)

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Guild Headliners press conference

A global star was announced to headline Preston's Guild Festival yesterday. I attended the press conference yesterday at Avenham park. Please listen to my radio package to find out more about this exciting upcoming event:
GuildPackage mixdown by cityzengeorge

Monday 13 February 2012

Fast Food and Business in the High Street.

Today the chief executive of Sainsbury's, Justin King, announced that he hopes the UK is "brave enough" to shrink its suffering high streets. There fore it seems like a good time to look at some local business developments. Please see the clip on fast food in Preston. I filmed this with Kenny Lomas, and Jess Morris did the narration.