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Rochdale to host food and drink festival with more than 20 vendors next week

The Flying Horse Hotel, The Baum, La Mancha, Petit Bistro, Treehouse Bar, Crust and Heavenly Desserts are just some of the traders set to participate in the event.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 16th August 2021

Rochdale will play host to its town centre’s first ever food and drink festival next week.

More than 20 local restaurants are gearing up to offer special deals, with the Rochdale Town Centre Food and Drink Festival kicking off on Wednesday 25 August and sticking around for 12 whole days.

Organised by the Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID), the event will feature the likes of The Flying Horse Hotel, The Baum, La Mancha, Petit Bistro, Treehouse Bar, Crust and Heavenly Desserts.

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Paul Ambrose, Rochdale’s Business Improvement District Manager said: “Rochdale’s food and drink scene has gained momentum and recognition over the last few years.

“The Food and Drink Festival showcases some of the very best of Rochdale’s diverse offerings and encourages patrons to eat and drink at lauded local businesses who strive for ensuring a great customer experience.

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“I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to connect with our town centre food and drink businesses and their owners.”

You can find more about all the festival’s vendors here.

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More than 20 local restaurants are participating in the event / Credit: Facebook (The Flying Horse Hotel)

A photo contest is also being arranged for the occasion, encouraging people to share pictures of their Food and Drink Festival experience on Instagram to be automatically-entered to win a £50 in gift card from a participating venue.

All you’ll need to do is post the photo to Instagram with the vendor as the location, tag @RochdaleTownCentre, and use the hashtag #RochdaleFoodandDrinkFestival.

Featured Image – Petit Bistro | Treehouse Bar

News

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has increased his stake in Manchester United

Danny Jones Danny Jones Sir Jim Ratcliffe increases Manchester United shares

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has increased his investment in Manchester United Football Club, taking his current stake from 27.7% to 28.94%.

The Failsworth-born billionaire officially became a minority shareholder in Man United earlier this year, bringing in the Sports arm of his INEOS petrochemical company and plenty of new personnel with him following an initial £1.25 billion acquisition which saw him buy over a quarter of the club.

While his tenure at Old Trafford has been a somewhat turbulent affair so far – having pleased most fans by taking at least some control away from the family but making a number of less-than-popular decisions of late – he is, at the very least, putting lots of money where his mouth is.

First reported by sports journalist Mike Keegan, Jim Ratcliffe has now made another big cash injection into the club to increase his overall ownership to nearly 30% of the club.

As per multiple outlets, the 72-year-old has pumped a further of approximately £79.3m into Man United to increase his overall stake just before the end of the year.

This latest figure payment was actually promised as part of his initial partial takeover which was completed back in February, with a filing listed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirming the final payment this week, with Ratcliffe receiving additional shares in return.

It also detailed that the ownership of the shares has transferred from Ratcliffe personally to the INEOS Group as a whole, who also have stakes in French football club OGC Nice, the INEOS Grenaiders cycling team (formerly Team Sky), as well as Formula 1, sailing, rugby and more.

Although supporters will be pleased to hear that Ratcliffe is committed to investing in the club, Keegan’s article details that the money itself won’t be strictly put towards any potential signings in the upcoming transfer window.

Similarly, Press Associates (PA) understand that the funds will be put towards infrastructure rather than player recruitment, as it is also expected that some squad members could be offloaded this January.

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News of Ratcliffe increasing his United stake won’t do much for many of his early detractors, however, as the Greater Manchester local has been accused of ‘forgetting his roots’ and ‘betraying the working class’ with some recent internal steps.

In addition, making around 250 staff members redundant as part of widespread cost-cutting measures as he continues to streamline the club, he has been criticised for neglecting the women’s team and making them train in temporary facilities whilst Carrington is redeveloped.

Most recently, Sir Jim and his newly rebuilt executive board received immense backlash for increasing ticket prices for remaining games this season to a whopping £66 across the board, with no concessions made for young, old or disabled fans.

With sporting director Dan Ashworth having been dismissed after just five months – a man who spent just as much time on gardening leave at his former club as he did in his actual role at United – it’s fair to say Ratcliffe and co. could have been more economical.

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Featured Images — Bloomberg Television (screenshot via YouTube)/The Manc Group

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Record 29 million people expected to drive home for Christmas this year

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Drivers are being told to prepare for long queues, as a record number of festive trips are predicted across the UK ahead of the big day.

With the festive season generally known to make the roads nationwide busier than usual, travel warnings have now been issued to all those making Christmas getaway trips for the holidays – with an annual study by the RAC and INRIX suggesting that 29 million journeys are planned before Christmas Day arrives.

Nearly half of these journeys (14.3 million) are set to be crammed into this coming weekend.

But, as Christmas falls mid-week this year, the figures suggest there will be an extended period of ‘pre-Christmas panic’ on the roads, with 5.7m trips taken yesterday and today alone.

The true festive getaway kicks off tomorrow (20 December), with an expected 3 million trips on this day, before the figure then jumps up to 3.7 million and 2.9 million this coming weekend (Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 December) – which is the final weekend before the big day itself.

A record 29 million people expected to drive home for Christmas this year / Credit: Geograph

By far the single busiest day, however, has to be Christmas Eve, with 3.8 million separate getaway journeys expected by car, on top of the final flurries of commuter traffic.

To make matters worse for everyone, the RAC’s research has also revealed that a further 4.7 million trips are expected at some point between the 20 and 22 December, and 2.5 million on either the 23 or 24 December, all coming from motorists who haven’t yet decided which day they’ll travel.

When it comes to the best and worst times to travel over the festive period, the research has revealed that the worst time to travel along major routes will be between 1pm and 7pm, especially tomorrow and Saturday, so both the RAC and INRIX are suggesting that drivers set off early in the morning, or later in the evening when the heaviest of the traffic should have subsided.

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After the big day, there are an additional 4.4 million trips predicted on Boxing Day and 3.8 million on Friday 27 December.

On these days, drivers are advised to avoid major roads during the hours of 10am to 3pm, which is when journeys are expected to take significantly longer than usual.

Featured Image – Vladimir Proskurovskiy (via Unsplash)

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