Workers Memorial Day, Preston and Chorley

Workers' Memorial Day, International Workers' Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), across the world:

Each year, more than two million women and men die as a result of work-related accidents and diseases

Workers suffer approximately 270 million occupational accidents each year, and fall victim to some 160 million incidents of work-related illnesses

Hazardous substances kill 440,000 workers annually – asbestos claims 100,000 lives

One worker dies every 15 seconds worldwide.

6,000 workers die every day.

Work kills more people than wars.

In a world, where on occasions death, injury and illness at work are hidden away and taken for granted, Workers' Memorial Day is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace accidents and ill health and to promote campaigns and union organisation in the fight for improvements in workplace safety. The slogan for the day is:

Remember the dead - Fight for the living.

Although the 28 April is used as the focal point for remembrance and a day of International solidarity; campaigning and other related activities continue throughout the year right around the world.

Preston is no exception, and there will be a memorial service held in Chorley too:

Preston - March and rally on Saturday 25th April 11.30 am at Preston Flag Market for more information about it, please contact: WMD c/o Trade Union Education, 5th Floor, Buckingham House, Preston PR1 3LS, Chair: Andy Birchall, 01772 223112 www.lancashiretradeunions.org.uk

Chorley - Chorley Branch of Unite the Union are holding a multi-faith memorial service at the Unite Workers Memorial Tree in Astley Park, Chorley, on Friday 24th, April at 6pm Meet at the Park gates (Park Road) at 5:50pm, all welcome. For more information Steve Turner (Branch Secretary) Mob- 07859369492
www.chorleytradescouncil.co.uk



This years memorial day will be particularly poignant, as millions of workers internationally have lost their jobs as a result of the catastrophic world recession.

JuggleCon1 Avenham Park

Easter Monday is the day Prestonians traditionally head for Avenham Park to roll their eggs.

This time the event will be enhanced by "Jugglecon1" a self organised event by local people.

Here's what's happening:

* Juggling
* Circus (if you've got a Unicycle or anything Circusy please bring along)
* Food
* Games (please bring along anything you think we'd love)
* Fuzzies
* Easter Egg Rolling
* Fun!

According to 'Visit Preston'

The annual Egg Rolling or Easter Fair on 13th April 10am to 3pm dates back to Victorian times although its exact origins are a mystery. However, the tradition has continued to modern times and continues to capture the imagination of all generations.

Learn Essential Zombie Survival Skills In Broadgate

With climate change, the credit crunch, celebrity culture, unhealthy diets and MP's expenses claims all getting worse, it's only a matter of time before the undead rise from their graves and slake their unholy thirst with the blood of the living.

That's the claim of Dr Dale Seslick, leader of a crack team of Zombie Apocalypse survival consultants, who will be visiting Broadgate this Friday, to host an Essential Zombie Apocalypse Survival Skills course at the New Continental.



According to the New Continental's website:

Seslick's popular Seminar deals with such sensitive issues as: What is a Zombie? Am I a Zombie? Is she a Zombie? Is he a Zombie? Are you a Zombie? Are they a Zombie? and of course the age old question - est tu un Zombie?

The impending threat from the legion of the undead is one that has been all too long ignored by the political establishment. Attempts to alert members to the danger of a crowd of stinking and rotting corpses asserting their diabolical will over the land of the living have made little impression in the House of Lords.

This is a course no Broadgate resident should miss, learning zombie survival skills, while supping a pint of real ale at the Conti, is far preferable to watching your own intestines being ripped out by lumbering cadavers.

Dr Dale Seslick is stopping in Broadgate as part of a national tour that will equip the whole country with zombie survival skills, a tour that will culminate in Edinburgh, city of Burke and Hare, the infamous body-snatchers. The seminar in Edinburgh coincides with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

For live video footage of Dr Dale Seslick's teaching, see fellow Preston Blogger 'The Temple of the Matmos'

Grafton St To Shut Down For 6 Months

Grafton Street in Broadgate is to be closed to traffic, and even resident's parking for up to 6 months. The whole street will resemble a massive building site, as it will be open only to contractors vehicles, the work is scheduled to begin in May, and may last until October.

Broadgate residents are preparing themselves for months, if not years of traffic chaos, as the work will continue along Strand Road, and involve the sinking of several tunnel shafts.

The crucial work is part of the Preston Tunnel Project, a major piece of civil engineering by United Utilities which will allow, when it is finished, for the storage of up to 30,000 cubic metres of storm water overflow, and will include 5 kilometres of pipework which will transfer waste water to the Clifton Marsh Water Treatment Works.

While residents are concerned about the inconvenience, noise, dirt and dust, most are aware of promises by the authorities that this work will significantly improve Preston's flood defences, as it enables much more effective drainage of storm waters that create the kind of flash flooding we're now all too familiar with, as well as improving water quality in the River Ribble, and in the Estuary.

The tunnels in Preston will follow the paths of existing roads and will not travel under buildings apart from those owned by United Utilities. Restoration will also be carried out after the underground work is complete.

Three shafts will be dug at Watery Lane, Marsh Lane and Fishergate Hill to allow digging machines to travel 26m underground to create a tunnel between the sites.
From Preston the pipes will travel under the river to a new pumping station in Penwortham, before passing beneath farmland and the river to Clifton Marsh.

The project has been planned to help the river comply with European legislation on bathing water quality.

Once complete, improvements should be seen to shellfish waters along the estuary and to beaches at Southport, Ainsdale, St Annes and Blackpool.

'Broadgate Is Great' Reverberates Across The Blogosphere

"Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence" Ralph Waldo Emerson

The internet is like a constantly flowing body of water. If you chuck a big enough rock in, you can send ripples right around it.

Broadgate is Great is a very little blog, about a small, but pleasant, part of Preston, which is an ex-town trying a little bit too hard to be 'the third city of the North West'. You'd think a blog with such a small footprint would seem barely relevant to other people in other places.

Even so, in the short time it's been in existence, 'Broadgate Is Great' has certainly sent out a few ripples, and been noticed by quite a few people, and it is really nice to be noticed.

It's even better to be noticed by decent writers, and Jenn Ashworth is certainly that, she's Preston's brightest literary flame since Robert Service and Angela Brazil.

Jenn was kind enough to say about this blog:

Broadgate is Great does what is says on the tin. As a community news portal specific to the Broadgate area, this blog is hard to beat. The writing is clear, informative and characterful, and the look and layout of the blog make the most out of the template and include some amazing pictures of the area.

Read more of Jenn's opinions on our, and other Preston Blogs at Preston Writer's Network

A lot of people liked the post on '85 ways to build community', which got featured in the Britblog Carnival on Redemption Blues Here's their opinion on that post:

Riversider at Broadgate is Great, drawing on Professor Robert Putnam’s initiative across the Pond, lists, in a creditable effort at transplanting it to British soil, 85 Ways to Build Community. Predictably (though not without justification), "Turn off your TV or PC" features as admonition number one (on the original American list, top spot goes to "Organise a social gathering to welcome a new neighbour". Switching off the goggle box is to converse with friends or family occupies 71st position only). "Go outside" comes in at number two. Interestingly, "Say hello to strangers" is number 51 (85 in the US version). People still where I come from and it is part of the charm of the place, but nowadays chiefly the preserve of the older generation. "Join in to help carry something heavy" would be a non-starter in Waffleland, where nobody would dream of giving up their seat for a white-haired matron on a bus, never mind a pregnant woman.

Even our article on the Broadgate Flood Wall repairs made an impact on the blogosphere. Greentime said this;

Global warming brings with it heavier floods in traditionally flood-prone areas. Are our local flood defenses up to the challenge? Follow one example of posing and answering this question at Broadgate Is Great: Broadgate Flood Wall Repairs.

Closer to home, the admirable Preston Blog took up our post on the threat to build a 'Super Surgery' over the Hartington Courts play area.

The latest blog to feature an article from Broadgate is Great is The Soul of Rock and Roll the blogger there suggests our coverage of Damo Suzuki's gig at the Continental will lead him to seek this experimental underground rock adventurer out.

Lots of other blogs have also posted links to Broadgate Is Great, and we always try to reciprocate. If you look at the bottom of the right hand sidebar, you'll see the very latest posts from some of Preston's most excellent blogs.

Broadgate is Great has just been going for a few months, but we're already getting the word out about some of the great things happening in this area. We're proud to belong to a community that's starting to make some pretty interesting and exciting things happen for itself.

Riversway Blog Probes Sport

Blogging gives ordinary people a voice that otherwise might not be heard.

It is with this in mind that 'Broadgate is Great' welcomes the new 'Riversway - Labour and Industry' blog started by Callum D'Souza, a postgraduate journalism student at the University of Central Lancashire.

Callum has big ambitions for his blog, he says the blog will be

"about industry and the labour force, there is only one print correspond for labour and industry in the whole of Britain"

The first aspect of Industry and the Labour force Callum is probing is Sport.

He explains:

I am going to look at the sports industry in Preston. Looking at how sports centres in Lancashire will become a training base for the London 2012 Olympics. Fiffteen Pacific Island countries including Fiji, Paupa New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga want to make use of facilities in Preston, Myerscough and Clitheroe. This means that Preston will financially 'get a piece of the action'.

So far Callum has blogged about how the Pacific Island Countries are all set to use sports facilities in Preston - despite the fact we do not have an olympic size swimming pool.

He comments:

It seems strange that a country would specifically choose to use a swimming facility which does not match the length of the Olympic sized pool.
Although there are plans to build an Olympic size swimming pool in Preston, this is unlikely to happen in the near future.

Athletes which represent the Pacific Islands will have little or no access to swimming facilities in their own country.

So the facilities which are presently available in Preston are still considerably better than in the Pacific Islands.

Other blogs set up by journalism students include: 'Preston Town Centre Health and Social Services at http://prestonisacityofjoy.blogspot.com, authored by 'pocket venus' who's been focussing so far on the closely linked subjects of alcohol, sex and pregnancy. Pocket Venus's blog has the innate advantage that you can read about sexual misbehaviour in it without feeling guilty, because it's basically for your own good.

We wish both bloggers lots of luck, and great futures as journalists.

Easter Events In Broadgate

One of the many great things about Broadgate, is that we have an unusually high number of people who do the hard work of organising a hugely diverse amount of community events.

A few days ago, we reported on the many events happening at the Gujurati Hindu Society, these include courses in holistic living, vegetarian cookery, exercise and yoga, hair and beauty, Bhagavad Gita, and computer classes click here to find out more.

If you read the current issue of 'Broadgate News', the free local newsheet that is written, printed and distributed entirely by local volunteers from BRAG and PACT, you will find out about many more local forthcoming events.

Here are just a few:

On 5th April, 9am - 1pm there's an indoor car boot sale at the BAC/EE Club on South Meadow Lane in Broadgate, it's 50p to get in, and you get a cup of tea or coffee chucked in free! Why not book a stall? find out more at http://www.baceeclub.co.uk

If you're more into dancing than scrabbling through bric-a-brac, the BAC/EE club has a FREE DISCO on Easter Monday, 10th April, between 1 and 5pm.

If you're prepared to take a little trip across the river, to the Penwortham Sports and Social Club, then Friday nights for you could be sorted. Here are the acts on each Friday in April:

3rd April; Eric Jones (brilliant vocal, come and have a good laugh)
10th April Steve Power (the man with the voice)
17th April Johnny Grimes (a welcome return)
24th April Lee Nelson (brilliant male vocal)

The fantastic 'New Continental', at the bottom of South Meadow Lane, nestled snugly between the Silver thread of the Ribble, and the mighty arch of the railway bridge, has a shedload of really interesting things happening in April:

2nd April - In Transit: Contemporary Performance from Chris Fitzsimmons and Krissi Musiol (£4)

7th April - the city's finest experimental music night Ear Whacks returns (free entry)

10th April - How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: survivalist comedy (£7, £5 conc.),

18th April - Martin Carthy (£8), 23rd & 24th April - acclaimed one-woman comedy drama Me, Mum and Dusty Springfield...

from April 30th - May 4th: The Continental Beer Festival!

Preston Writing Network's first event Word Soup launches on the 21st April: showcasing a writer's open mic, plus Sally Cook, Socrates Adams-Florou, and 3 North-West published writers - Preston's own Jenn Ashworth (A Kind of Intimacy), Chris Killen (The Bird Room), and cult novelist Steven Hall (The Raw Shark Texts). With a musical interlude and a literary short film. See www.prestonwritingnetwork.blogspot.com

And don't forget the book club - the next meeting is on the 6th April in the snug - email catherine DOT cable AT talktalk DOT net (replace the DOT with a . and the AT with an @ , writing it like this makes it harder for autobots to send her loads of spam) for more details if you'd like to join in!

Plus, if you're interested in joining a regular Yoga Class at the pub - Thursday Lunchtimes or after work - get in touch: email info@newcontinental.net for details.

There's an even fuller list of events at the New Continental Here.