Tim Pickstone

A 1km stretch of road in Bury is to lose its last off-peak bus service, as Rossendale Buses withdraws the off-peak 167 bus. The service will end on 28 January 2012. This was a commercially operated route (i.e.  not one subsidised by public funds), so obviously bus companies withdraw from routes if they cannot run them on a commercial basis.

One side of Heywood Old Road, which runs up through Bowlee, is part of Bury MBC and part of Holyrood Ward. If you’re familiar with the road you’ll know that it has continuous housing on the ‘Bury side’ AND what a big hill it is, which makes walking up from the main Middleton bus-routes down on Manchester Old Road/Middleton Road a problem for many people.

First Bus will continue to operate the peak time services on the route which is two early morning services and services in the evening peak. The existing timetable shows which buses are operated by First and will continue to run. After the changes there will be no buses on a Saturday.

Along with local residents I have been speaking at length with Transport for Greater Manchester, and also with Councillors who represent the other side of the road which is mostly in the Middleton West ward of Rochdale MBC.

Transport for Greater Manchester have agreed to extend the “Heywood Link” service to include Heywood Old Road, and also to add Sainsbury’s Heaton Park as a potential destination for the Link. Heywood Link is a bookable bus service available to the whole community. The existing leaflet which gives information about the Link can be found here (I am guessing they will be updating this leaflet to include the new features shortly).

We are still in some discussions with the T4GM about the potential of re-routing another nearby bus to provide some service, but even if this were possible it isn’t going to be immediate.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need more information.

Tim

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority is consulting local people on the services it provides in the future. Although it has saved nearly £11 million from a freeze on recruitment, cuts in back office staff, significant senior management post reductions etc, it still needs to reduce its costs more over the coming years.

To help them address this situation, they have been working with staff, firefighters, trade unions and the public to develop a Corporate Plan.

This includes NO closures of fire stations, and no compulsary redundancies. They have been able to do this by re-organising our fire cover by using risk management data.

The video below has been produced to explain the changes, and here is a leaflet about what the risk rating means for the different wards in Bury. 

The consultation period closes on 23 January 2012. 

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Goals Soccer Centres, the company which has been given planning permission to build a massive 17 artificial pitch soccer centre in the St Margaret’s cover of Heaton Park appears to be having a few problems.

The following statement was issued to investors yesterday, which certainly seems to imply that no more soccer centres will be built in 2012.

Wouldn’t it be great if that meant it was never built, and we get to keep our beautiful piece of parkland?

Goals Soccer Centres PLC, the UK’s premier operator of next generation outdoor 5-a-side soccer centres with 42 centres in the UK and one in Los Angeles, USA, announces a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2011, in advance of the release of the Company’s preliminary results on 28 February 2012.

Trading for the year was in line with market expectations with overall sales increasing by 9% to £30.3m (2010: £27.8m). This has been driven by a resilient performance with like for like sales rising 1%. The impact of the contested VAT on block bookings by teams to fulfil their league fixtures has resulted in overall like for like sales being down 2%.

The Company opened centres in Sunderland, Liverpool South, Norwich and Hull during 2011. Our first modular build centre in Chester will open in March 2012 within the target budget of £1.5m which compares favorably to our historic build cost per centre of £2.3m.

In order to focus on strong cash generation and allow adequate time to evaluate all aspects of the new modular build the Board have decided to postpone further new centre openings in 2012. Subject to a satisfactory evaluation and prevailing economic conditions, we intend to return to opening more centres from 2013.

The postponement of new centre openings in 2012 will also enable the Board to meet a key objective by using strong cash flow to further reduce net bank debt which, despite a normalised capital spend in 2011, has been reduced to £52.4m from £54.0m at 30 June 2011.

The Company has also entered into a new four year banking agreement with Bank of Scotland totaling £56m comprising a revolving credit facility of £38 million, a term loan of £16 million and an overdraft facility of £2million. These facilities have been negotiated at competitive market rates and will provide the Company with the financial flexibility to meet our growth aspirations.

Whilst 2011 was one of the most challenging years the consumer has faced, it looks likely that 2012 will continue in much the same vein. However, Goals operates in a resilient market place with a favourable price point and our market leading position provides us with the necessary scale to cope with the challenges ahead.