RHS Tatton Show

Tomorrow sees the start of the five day long RHS Show at Tatton Park near Knutsford. Tatton is renowned as the biggest and best horticultural show in the North, with the country’s brightest gardener designers showing of their talents. Amongst the planned show gardens this year are Tony Heyward’s abstract jewelled landscape inspired by the British coastline and Tony Smith’s intriguingly titled Aliens & Lettuce. Gardens designed by Huggo Bugg, Will Quarmby and Olivia Stewart will determine the first RHS Young Designer of the Year award.


Aside from the show gardens Tatton will host the prestigious Eurofleurs competition, where twelve of Europe’s best young florists will compete for the award, good luck to Britain’s competitor Joe Massie. Long with more than 200 exhibitors to keep shoppers happy, Fortnum and Mason will be on hand at the show to provide high class refreshments. If you can’t make it to the show BBC 2 will be covering the highlights from Tatton on Thursday at 7.30pm and Friday at 8pm.

Morris face big challenge at Edgewater Park

House-builder Morris faces a big challenge if their Edgewater Park development is to live up to expectations. Morris are certainly ambitious claiming to be building ‘A community that is designed to capture the same friendly, intimate 'village' atmosphere of its more well-established, and equally desirable neighbours: Stockton Heath, Grappenhall and Thelwall’. The problem however is that Edgewater Park is on the opposite bank of the Manchester Ship Canal in the far less desirable village of Latchford.

Including shops, cafe bar, parkland and a bowling green in the plans among the mix of apartments, family and executive homes is a positive start. Of the three show homes the flagship Winchester is an impressive 4 bed detached executive house with some thoughtful touches to its layout, the Sutton is only slightly smaller and has a good family feel to it. Sadly the 3 bed Ely feels cramped, the lounge being more of a corridor from the front door to the kitchen. Disappointingly a washer dryer and dishwasher only come as optional extras in the properties.

Once completed the development will be big enough to change the nature of Latchford and have the potential to raise the profile of the area. To achieve this Morris need to attract quality buyers which they will only do by meeting expectations and while the properties are priced around 20% cheaper than across the water, failure to include the expected white goods isn’t the luxury executives expect. A little more thought by the marketing department at Morris is needed if Edgewater Park is to meet the challenge.

Beech Road Festival

The annual Beech Road Festival in Chorlton has grown over the last thirteen years into one of Manchester's most vibrant events and this years celebrations drew the crowds again to the fashionable suburb. 

The festival to its benefit isn't as grand in size as the city centre's Manchester Day or Pride events, instead it has a more welcoming, relaxed and bohemian feel.  The chic and colourful boutiques, trendy bars and restaurants opened their doors and spilled out onto the street to celebrate their own community and welcome their visitors.  Outside Bar Lorenzo a funky Latino band entertained the the crowds while the tasty delights of stalls selling ice cream, English, Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisine ensured nobody went hungry

Chorlton Green filled with stalls selling local products, promoting local artists, charities and community groups while the larger Beech Road Park was packed with local musicians, an eclectic mix of stalls, funfair and the main stage.  As the street festival wound down the bands on the main stage rocked the festival into the night.

End of the NWDA

From the outset the Con-Lib coalition made it clear that abolishing quangos and the £500 million of public money they used up would be a key part of reducing government debt.  No doubt there are some strange and pointless quangos; The Potato Council, GTC and Milk Development Council, but not all are a waste of money.  In particular George Osbourne's decision to scrap the Regional Development Agencies seems very short sighted.

Today in the Downtown Manchester blog http://tiny.cc/cto7k Frank McKenna expressed his beliefs that the abolition of the RDAs is the coalitions first big mistake.  True there were considerable differences in the success levels of the various authorities yet as their purpose was to promote investment, surely more consideration should have been given to their future.  It seems the baby has been thrown out with the bath water.

The North West Development Agency was particularly successful in developing a region that is becoming a genuine alternative to London and helping to forge a path where local and county councils individually had failed.  This is not a criticism of the councils, they have their own interests to consider, however it is easy to see how the new Local Enterprise Partnerships will be as insular.

Could a North West wide networking group for LEPs be a way to form a working partnership?  In business the concept and success of 'givers-gain' is well known and personal interaction makes such co-operation far more likely.  Hopefully the LEPs will seek advice from wise heads such as Frank, Sir Howard Bernstein and Steve Broomhead and continue to create a bright future for our region.