A massive bus driver recruitment campaign has been launched across Greater Manchester to get ready for the Bee Network.
Only a matter of weeks after the first bright yellow Bee Network buses started hitting streets across the region, with more and more being spotted out and about by locals as the days go on, Go North West has today kicked-off Britain’s biggest-ever recruitment campaign for bus drivers ready for the Greater Manchester public transport service to officially launch later this year.
And you might recognise it’s taken inspiration from a certain 80s cult-classic action film for it.
With the Bee Network set to be rolled-out in September, the transport company – which was selected by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) in late 2022 as the winner of its first two bus contracts – has big plans to hire up to 300 new drivers for its ‘Elite Bus Driver Academy’.
Themed as ‘Be an Elite Driver’, with Maverick and the rest Top Gun team serving as some worthy inspiration, the recruitment campaign sees existing Go North West bus drivers all dressed up in fighter pilot-style uniforms in an attempt to “bring to life the prestige of being a driver” and the different types of careers on offer for people.
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Britain’s ‘biggest ever’ bus driver recruitment campaign launches in Greater Manchester / Credit: Go North West
The recruitment campaign encourages those interested to become “the best of the best”, to find the thing that “makes them awesome”, and to brace themselves for a career with “wheels…that you’ll steer”.
Open both to existing bus driver licence holders and to those who have never sat behind the wheel of a bus before, applicants will undertake a six-week intensive training programme, and will operate routes across Bolton and Wigan – which are the first two areas to be franchised under TfGM and Mayor Andy Burnham’s new integrated London-style vision for local buses.
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Bus driver jobs include 20 days’ annual holiday, generous pensions, and pay rates that quickly increase with experience.
Successful applicants will get to earn themselves upwards of £28,000 per year.
Not only that, but Go North West is also going to be offering longer-term apprenticeships that combine studying with hands-on driving to allow people to “earn while they learn”.
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Having quadrupled the size of its training team in anticipation of an influx of new recruits, Go North West says it’s “excited” for this new chapter for bus travel in the region.
Speaking on the recruitment campaign’s launch, Nigel Featham – Managing Director of Go North West – said the company is “very proud” to be delivering these bus services for Greater Manchester, adding: “This is a groundbreaking recruitment campaign to match the huge scale of change that we’ll be helping to deliver in Greater Manchester’s public transport.”
“We’ve already had lots of interest in driving the new Bee Network buses and we’re expecting thousands of applications.”
What the Bee Network buses will look like across Greater Manchester / Credit: TfGM
Once the new contracts are underway, Go North West will operate more than 500 buses from Bolton and Wigan, as well as from its existing Queen’s Road depot in central Manchester – with the company’s facility in Bolton being the largest UK bus depot outside London.
Fancy it then? Find out more about becoming a Bee Network bus driver and apply here.
Featured Image – Go North West
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NHS to start screening patient health records in a bid to catch one of the most ‘lethal’ cancers
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of GP practices will begin combing patient records to offer urgent tests to those most at risk of one of the deadliest cancers.
It’s all in a bid to catch pancreatic cancer sooner rather than later.
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most-common cause of cancer deaths in the UK each year, with only 7% of people living for five years or more after diagnosis.
Most people with pancreatic cancer only recognise symptoms when their disease is at a late stage, so this is why the NHS wants to reach out to people as early as possible through its new screening initiative so they can get the best treatment available to them.
GP teams are set to start scouring online patients records to identify people over 60 who have the key early warning signs of pancreatic cancer – including being recently diagnosed with diabetes and sudden weight loss, as it’s said that around half of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer have been diagnosed with diabetes recently.
The symptoms of pancreatic cancer are usually not noticed until it’s at an advanced stage, so we need to find new ways to pick it up.
We’re working to seek people out who might be unwell without any symptoms, so we can provide people with the most effective treatment. https://t.co/6rlFVGN6UW
Even if a patient’s weight is not recorded, GP teams will reach out to patients to check they have not ‘unexpectedly slimmed down’ and offer them tests if they have new onset diabetes.
More than 300 GP practices across England will begin using the initiative – with dozens rolling it out now, and the rest due to be up and running in the autumn.
While GP teams already know the signs to look for, this new screening scheme provides almost £2 million in targeted funding to help practices reach out to those most at-risk and give patients the best chance of being diagnosed earlier.
NHS is starting to screen patient health records in a bid to catch one of the most ‘lethal’ cancers / Credit: RawPixel
When the practices taking part in the three-year pilot find the signs and symptoms they’re looking for, they will then contact patients and send them for urgent blood tests and CT scans to rule out cancer.
“Pancreatic cancer is responsible for so many deaths, because patients don’t usually notice symptoms until the cancer is at an advanced stage, which is why we need to find new ways to pick it up,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS’s National Clinical Director for Cancer.
Health Minister, Karin Smyth, added: “As someone who has faced cancer personally, I know all too well the fear that comes with a diagnosis and the precious value of catching it early.
“This targeted approach to identify people at risk of one of the most lethal cancers could give more people a fighting chance and spare the heartbreak of countless families.”
Featured Image – RDNE (via Pexels)
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Chester Zoo named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors
Emily Sergeant
Congratulations are in order, yet again, for Chester Zoo… as this time it’s been named one of England’s most popular attractions.
Merely months after being named the UK’s best zoo for the second year running, thanks to receiving more than 11,000 ‘excellent’ reviews from TripAdvisor, Chester Zoo has now got itself another prestigious title, as a major VisitEngland (VE) report has ranked it the third most-visited ‘paid for’ attraction in England – and the most visited outside of London.
The national tourist board for England gathered information from a total of 1,373 attractions across the country, and ranked the UK’s biggest charity zoo as the third overall in terms of popularity, with a whopping 1.9 million visitors in 2024 alone.
The Tower of London took top spot with 2.9 million visitors, while the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew was second place with 2.3 million visitors.
When it comes to free attractions, on the other hand, it wad the British Museum that claimed the top spot with 6.5 million visitors, while the Natural History Museum (5.9 million visitors) took second place, and the Tate Modern (4.6 million visitors) got third.
So as you can see, the south and London in particular is a pretty dominating force in England’s tourism industry – which is why it’s even more impressive to see Chester Zoo ranked so highly.
The new VE title also comes after the zoo was recently given £4 million of lottery funding to help ‘transform’ the local environment and restore wildlife habitats across the Cheshire and wider North West region.
Not only that, but if course follows Chester Zoo’s unveiling of its new immersive experience named Heart of Africa, which is the the largest zoo habitat ever created in the UK and is home to 57 iconic African species.
Chester Zoo has been named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors / Credit: Chester Zoo
“As a major international wildlife charity, everything we do is focused on supporting global conservation,” commented Chester Zoo’s Commercial Director, Dom Strange.
“Whether it’s caring for highly-threatened animals and plants, making scientific discoveries, influencing Government environmental policies, impacting the National Curriculum to better connect young people with nature, or our conservation efforts in around 20 countries, we’re fully committed to protecting endangered species for the future.
“But none of this would be possible without our visitors.
“Every person who comes to the zoo for a fun and inspiring day out is helping to fund our vital work, so we want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped us to rank so highly in VisitEngland’s latest report.”
Emily Sergeant -
25th May 2023 
