North West Business Briefs: Sounds From the Other City Festival; Longridge Timber; JV North; Cheshire West & Chester Council

Salford’s homegrown Sounds From the Other City Festival (SFTOC) said it has, with heavy heart, taken the painful decision to cancel the beloved May Bank Holiday event for the second year in a row, due to the impact of the global pandemic.

After much deliberation and investigation into alternative solutions, the team has conceded it is impossible to recreate the true, sweat drenched, hands-on, DIY spirit of SFTOC as a socially distanced or fully digital festival and all ticket holders will receive an automatic refund.

The festival industry as a whole is faced with the prospect of huge monetary risk in putting on events due to the indefinite restrictions and cultural uncertainty 2021 faces, and it is a risk that SFTOC said it sadly cannot afford to take, as even now the financial future of the event is extremely precarious.

SFTOC has been a firm underground favourite since 2005, delivering a unique annual event that champions local promoters and celebrates the off-kilter beauty of Salford, the oft-overlooked ‘other city’ to Manchester, so it is vitally important to the team that the festival survives the pandemic and returns to get the gang back together for a show-stopping 2022 festival in true Sounds style, organiser said.

Due to receiving no income from ticket sales for 2020 and 2021, SFTOC is now wholly dependent on grants and funding, so in response to requests from its dedicated community, the organisation has launched the SFTOC Lifeline appeal, which creates the opportunity for those who wish to, and have the means to, donate to help the festival survive the year. Ticket holders will receive an email from Skiddle confirming their refund, plus links to the website for further details on the SFTOC Lifeline appeal.

Rivca Burns, creative director for Sounds from the Other City, said: “It feels that now, more than ever before, we need this celebration, but it is just not safe to do so. We hope that in 2022 Chapel St will once again be alive with the glorious sights and sounds of SFTOC and to celebrate like never before. The next 12 months will be just as hard, if not harder than the previous 12, but with hope and even more power from our people we will get there.”

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John and Sue Cornthwaite

Family-owned Longridge Timber has opened a third location in Clitheroe, at Twin Brooks Business Park.

The timber merchant, which launched in 2007, imports premium quality structural grade timber that is used in projects across the North West. The business is continuing to grow after opening its second location in Preston in 2018.

Expansion of the business into Clitheroe will immediately create three jobs. This third location, which opened its doors earlier this month, is already proving popular with local tradespeople.

John and Sue Cornthwaite, owners of Longridge Timber, appointed Matthew Parr, associate solicitor in the commercial property team at law firm Napthens, to advise on the purchase of the space in Clitheroe.

Matthew Parr said: “Having opened its second premises in Preston just a few years ago Longridge Timber saw another opportunity in East Lancashire. The business owners, John and Sue, had observed that more and more customers were working across Ribble Valley and East Lancashire, and we were happy to advise in connection with the opening of the new site in the area that would enable the business to support its clients across the whole of the county.”

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Wayne Gales

A social housing consortium that has built more than 8,000 homes in the North West has welcomed two new members.

Registered providers Plus Dane Housing and Stockport Homes, in partnership with Stockport Council, have joined JV North ahead of Homes England’s forthcoming 2021/26 Affordable Homes Programme. The new appointments take the number of full board members in the consortium to 11.

JV North’s other members are Bury Council, Community Gateway Association, Jigsaw, One Manchester, Sovini, Torus, Trafford Housing Trust, Weaver Vale Housing Trust and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group.

Plus Dane Housing, which has more than 13,500 homes across Merseyside and Cheshire, aims to build up to 1,500 homes over the next five years. Stockport Homes manages 11,500 properties on behalf of Stockport Council and has a homebuilding programme of 1,000 homes to be delivered by 2025.

JV North chair, and chief executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust, Wayne Gales, said: “The challenges of recent years, especially those of 2020, have shown us collaboration is key to producing the right outcomes when addressing the housing crisis. With this in mind, we very much welcome the two new members so that we can further extend views, ideas, skills, intelligence and experience throughout JV North ahead of the new homebuilding programme starting in April.”

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Cllr Carol Gahan

Cheshire West and Chester Council has reassured businesses that financial support is still available to help them through the pandemic.

It has been administering grants available to businesses, with more than 11,000 payments to businesses within the borough, equating to in excess of £18m since November 2020 to help them through the coronavirus pandemic.

The Government announced an additional one-off lump sum payment of up to £9,000 for businesses forced to close under the current national lockdown restrictions, which is being awarded alongside the grants available to closed businesses. There is no need for a separate application.

With many ‘non-essential’ businesses closed due to lockdown restrictions combined with the need to slow the spread of the virus, the message from the council is that financial support help is available for those businesses that are eligible. Businesses can check if they are eligible for funding through the council’s website.

Cllr Carol Gahan, cabinet member for legal and finance, said: “The borough’s business community continues to take the brunt of the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. Our hospitality, retail and leisure sectors have been hit hard. There is still time to apply for grant support and we would urge everyone to continue to work with us to get through this difficult time.”