Iceland is giving away free roast dinners all week to help people in need as Random Acts of Kindness Day approaches on Friday.
The budget supermarket chain has partnered with The Food Warehouse and Aunt Bessie’s to give away free roast dinners to customers, both in-store and online, from Monday 13 to Friday 17 February – and kicked off its week of generosity right here in Manchester.
Lucky customers at an Iceland store in Prestwich, Greater Manchester were some of the first to be randomly selected to win the bundle.
Chelsea Burgess, 30 years old, said: “It’s nice to know that people were looking out for us today. It was totally unexpected, we only popped out for a few bits!”.
June Burrows, 52 years old, said: “It was such a nice surprise! This’ll make a lovely meal for me and the kids – I can’t wait!”.
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Jamilah Choudhary, 57 years old, said: “This’ll put a smile on all my family’s faces today – thank you, Iceland!”
Jack Ford, 29 years old, said: “I just popped out for my lunch, so this has been such an amazing surprise. It’s brought a smile to my face today.”
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Kevin and Cara Crowther, 39 years old, said: “We’re absolutely made up that we were selected for such a lovely prize. Thank you, Iceland!”
Customers who go to purchase the £12.00 Aunt Bessie’s roast bundle at either the tills or online checkout could be randomly selected to get it for free.
Stores all over the country have been given permission to give away roasts at random to local customers, with staff using their knowledge of people coming into the store to decide who needs it most.
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All customers need to do is head to the checkout with the Aunt Bessie’s deal bundle, which includes one tender meat joint and three sides or desserts, to be in with the chance of getting it for free.
Customers who purchase the Aunt Bessie’s deal online this week are also in with a chance of a freebie, and will find out on Random Acts of Kindness Day if they are receiving the money back as a refund.
An Iceland Spokesperson said: “Random Acts of Kindness Day is such a great way to celebrate our communities, but we want to extend our ‘random roasts of kindness’ for a little longer than one day.
“We are proud of the fantastic store staff who really know our customers best; it makes sense to leave the giveaways to them. We hope this puts a smile across a lot of faces.”
The initiative has been put in place after research revealed that over half (53%) of Brits plan on either reducing the number of hot dinners they eat or cutting them out completely due to the cost of living.
TV nutritionist, Dale Pinnock, recently partnered with Iceland as part of the supermarket’s mission to Save Hot Dinners, revealing the science behind eating a hot meal and the importance they have to everyday lives.
Research has revealed that over 46% of Brits said they were planning on cutting out one to three hot meals for a week.
Dale said: “Hot dinners are fundamental to a healthier life for a number of key reasons. For example, many nutrients become much more available to the body once cooked, whereas cold food slows digestion down which can cause gut-related problems and can have a negative impact on your immune system during colder months.
“Very cold foods can send shock waves throughout the nervous system so during colder months our bodies prefer the food we eat to be warm, which is a great way to elevate core body temperature and keep warm.”
Qatar and Sir Jim Ratcliffe set to submit ‘world record’ offers to buy Manchester United as other bidders are expected to join the race
Danny Jones
The deadline for the second round of bidders in the race to takeover Manchester United football club has officially passed, with multiple world record offers reportedly on the verge of being submitted.
Following the first round of bids, which saw a Qatar investment group headed up by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe both put in their initial offers, Manchester United set a second deadline of 9pm on 22 March for them to increase their offers and welcome other offers.
While the opening bids matched each other at £4.5 billion, working with financial advisors Raine Group who are brokering in the deal from the US, neither reached the Glazer family ownership’s estimations, who value the club closer to £6bn.
As a result, both went on to carry out further negotiations — each visiting Old Trafford last Friday and staying for upwards of six hours (more than 10 in the case of the Qataris) — but it is now thought they may no longer be the only parties involved in the bidding war. Whether it will be in time is the issue.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos have not submitted their bid for Manchester United before the 9pm deadline pic.twitter.com/XTc0rVKAn2
Kaveh Solhekol trying to clear up the confusion over Qatar and Jim Ratcliffe’s United bids.
Despite earlier reports that Sheikh Jassim and his associates had submitted a “world record offer” before the Glazers and Raine Group’s 9pm deadline (5pm New York time), Sky Sports‘ Kaveh Solhekol has now clarified that the bid was not submitted in time and that they have asked for an extension.
Man United are said to have agreed to the extension and Sheikh Jassim still remains confident that they have the “best bid” of the bunch.
Moreover, as per the likes of Mike Keegan, Jim Ratcliffe was also set to enter his second bid, with both offers said to have increased to around the £5bn mark. However, the INEOS chief exec is also said to have failed to meet the deadline and been granted an extension, according to a senior source.
Kaveh also went on to detail that multiple other offers have in fact been submitted, with the numbers said to be “approaching eight” different bidders.
Many bids have gone in for #mufc this evening, approaching eight [@SkyKaveh]
Any bid of more than £3.75bn would break the world record fee for a sports club set when the Denver Broncos were sold last summer.
As for the frontrunners, both offers are still around a billion short of the Glazer’s asking price and not only have Sheikh Jassim and co. already warned they will ‘walk away’ if the price is too high, but it’s unclear how far Ratcliffe’s wealth can stretch if he is to continue pursuing a deal.
The key difference between the two bids is that Qatar’s bid will apparently make the club debt-free given the sheer mass of state wealth behind them, whereas the Failsworth-born businessman’s financing may be more complex to put together.
Trying to clear up the confusion, The Times‘ Matt Lawton said on Twitter that “both Qatari and INEOS representatives said their bids were in, United sources [are] saying they haven’t yet bid and have asked for an extension”, with offers now set to be made by tomorrow.
As reported by Sky Sports earlier this week, it was thought that “at least five other bidders” and as many as eight in question could join the race along with Ratcliffe and Qatar, who were the only two parties to have submitted an official offer for United during the first round of bidding.
However, a detailed list of the other candidates and precisely how many are still yet to be confirmed; Kaveh did go on to suggest that some could simply be a form of “hot air” designed to hopefully urge the ‘serious bidders’ to edge their offers up even higher.
As for next steps, neither of the parties in the supposed two-horse race expect an immediate decision from the board, especially after the unexpected delay, and those who submitted new offers in the second round of bidding will have to wait at least seven days to hear back from the club and brokers Raine Group regarding their progress.
However, it is worth noting that these subsequent bids may not necessarily be attempts to buy the club outright and not only is there a feeling that a third round of negotiations could take place, but there is also a growing sense that the Glazers could still pull out of a potential buyout altogether.
Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone cameras are now being used for ‘detecting crime’
Emily Sergeant
Cameras installed for Greater Manchester’s now-discarded Clean Air Zone (CAZ) scheme are apparently being used for “detecting crime”.
A total of 407 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed across the region back in February 2022 ready for the start of the controversial £60 million scheme that never happened – but now, councillors in Bolton have revealed that the technology isn’t going to waste, and is actually being for an entirely different reason all together.
After Horwich councillor David Grant “raised concerns” about the cost of running the cameras at recent Bolton Council meeting, leader Martyn Cox revealed that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has been closely controlling them and using them “to good effect in detecting crime”, according to BBC Manchester.
“Now that the Mayor of Greater Manchester has graciously confirmed that the area of Bolton will most like not be subject to any clean air zone can the leader confirm that he intends to demand that the presumably now defunct cameras be removed?,” Mr Grant asked at the meeting.
He continued: “Secondly, bearing in mind these cameras are live and drawing electricity from our street furniture, will he be requesting a payment for electricity estimated Greater Manchester wide at £375,000 a month?”
Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone cameras are now being used for “detecting crime” / Credit: GMP
Council leader David Cox then explained to Mr Grant that information from the cameras released in line with data protection legislation has been used to support at least two murder investigations, one high risk missing person case, one county lines drug supply case, two separate fatal road traffic collisions, and an aggravated burglary.
“However, it is acknowledged that there are concerns around the use of number plate recognition cameras and allowing direct access to the cameras to organisations such as Greater Manchester Police when these are no longer required for a charging clean air zone,” Mr Cox continued.
“There is a commitment to undertake public consultation on the future use of cameras once we have a decision from central government on the investment led clean air plan.”
The Clean Air Zone was to initially hand motorists daily charges of up to £60 for some of the most polluting vehicles on Greater Manchester‘s roads.
Greater Manchester Police has been closely controlling the cameras and using them “to good effect” / Credit: GMP
The government agreed to delay the deadline for the scheme until 2026, but local leaders wanted to scrap all charges and help to fund vehicle upgrades instead.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) then set out evidence supporting an investment-led, and, crucially for residents and motorists, a non-charging Clean Air Plan back in June 2022 – which it said was “the best solution” to address the roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) problem.
Georgina Pellant -
14th February 2023 
