NW business briefs: Duke Street Market; Telcom; Sale Water Park; Animate; Social Enterprise Places; Stockport Council

Duke Street Market Food & Drink Market, located in Liverpool city centre, has welcomed new trader, Picar, to its vibrant food scene.

Picar, spearheaded by the creative minds behind renowned kitchens such as Bone & Block and Barnacle, brings a fresh twist to traditional Spanish cuisine with its small plates concept. The ethos of putting a modern spin on classic Spanish dishes permeates every aspect of the dining experience, it says.

Founder, Harry Marquart, said the new kitchen would focus on ‘Spanish home cooking.’

The culinary team has drawn inspiration from a treasure trove of authentic Spanish recipes collected by Marquart and Picar’s chefs, drawing inspiration from their recent travels across Spain. Marquart said: “As part of Project Picar, our team has dedicated extensive time to delve into the world of Spain’s renowned artists and their exceptional creative methods, with a particular focus on the works of Picasso.”

General manager, Lee Bannon-Smith, said: “I’m eagerly awaiting Picar’s arrival at the market, as it aligns perfectly with our exciting trajectory. We’ve recently welcomed Big Lola’s Taqueria and have witnessed their remarkable success, and we’ve also introduced Cahita’s innovative new menu concept, centred around the flavours of Latin BBQ. Picar will complement the diverse culinary offerings within the market, bringing a harmonious blend of tastes.”

Picar’s open kitchens allow guests to witness the chefs at work while enjoying their meals at large communal tables.

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Manchester-based Telcom, a full stack builder and provider of hyperfast business-grade internet networks, has been selected by Cardiff Council to supply residents and businesses across Cardiff with hyperfast gigabit connectivity.

Many parts of Cardiff have access to fibre-powered high speed connectivity but there are some areas where a digital divide has emerged due to the patchwork approach to existing operator network builds. These gaps between network builds have resulted in a lack of equitable fibre availability for certain properties, which have instead been left behind in the digital slow lane.

These residents and businesses are still reliant on legacy copper infrastructure and, as such, suffer from poor broadband services. Cardiff Council said it is committed to ensuring that its citizens do not become a digital tale of two cities and that 100% complete coverage of full fibre connectivity is available across the city by 2025, creating digital inclusion for all.

Via a competitive tender process Telcom was selected as the digital infrastructure partner to deliver a new hyperfast full fibre network based on its HyperCity vision, capable of connecting the residents and businesses of Cardiff to a sustainable future. Cllr Chris Weaver, cabinet member for finance, modernisation and performance at Cardiff Council, said: “This project will deliver high quality fibre broadband to some of the most deprived communities in Cardiff.”

Shaun Gibson, Telcom group co-founder and chief executive, said: “The roll-out of the full fibre HyperCity network will remove barriers to growth and innovation and help to act as a catalyst for economic and social development, by connecting residents and businesses for good.”

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Chris Morris, Trafford Council, and Asif Ghafoor

Trafford’s Sale Water Park has opened what it says is the largest ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging hub in Greater Manchester.

The £1m state-of-the-art site is installed and maintained by EV charging network Be.EV. Equipped with 16 ultra-rapid charging bays, it can charge up to 380 EVs each day and is accessible around the clock to Trafford residents and commuters on the M60, which sees an average daily traffic of more than 100,000 vehicles.

The site is equipped with ultra-rapid Kempower chargers that can charge an EV to 80% in as little as 20 minutes. The cutting-edge technology intelligently distributes energy supply between vehicles according to capacity and demand – meaning that if one car reaches the maximum amount of power on one charger, any residual energy supply can be reassigned to another vehicle connected on-site.

The opening comes at a time when national parks across the country are ramping up their EV charging offering, with the Lake District recently announcing an ‘EV Trail’ around the world heritage site. The site at Sale Water Park marks a major step forward for Trafford Council, which is leading the charge to enable more of the public to join the EV movement. The council is working towards an ambitious target of getting all of Trafford’s 236,000 residents to within 10 minutes of a charger.

Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV, said: “It’s important that EV charging matches what communities need. We want to create charging hubs that are at the right speeds in the right places – rapid and ultra-rapid hubs in proximity to major motorways and trunk roads will play a key role in this mission.”

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Bonnie Craig

Preston’s Animate leisure complex, one of six major projects planned under the Harris Quarter Towns Fund Investment Programme, is to pay homage to the City’s history and culture of the Harris Quarter.

Maple Grove, the developers delivering the Preston City Council project, has commissioned a local artist to create a pattern for Animate’s metal façade cladding, which wraps the top third of the new leisure complex, forming a key feature in its design.

Bonnie Craig, who has recently completed glass artwork for the University of Central Lancashire’s student centre, was appointed to the project and took her inspiration from Animate’s location, which is Tenterfield Street. Its name comes from the tenter fields, where outdoor frames held the woven fabric as part of the production process. The stretched fabric was held in place by tenterhooks, and the shape of these hooks was employed throughout the cladding design.

Bonnie Craig said. “When asked to create designs that explored the area around the Animate site, I was intrigued by the interesting shape and name of Tenterfield Street, as well as the art-deco style design of Lancastria House on one corner of the street.

“I developed a simple shape based on the tenterhook and the street itself. The motif repeats over the metal panels in a grid pattern inspired by the windows, interior wall panels and stonework used in Lancastria House and aims to explore the idea of tension – created in both the tenter frames and the meaning of ‘on tenterhooks’ – and resolution/visual balance.”

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Cllr Arooj Shah

Oldham has secured its status as a ‘Social Enterprise Place’ cementing its commitment to purpose-led business in the local economy.

The Social Enterprise Places scheme, set up by membership body Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), involves areas of the country where social enterprises and key regional stakeholders have come together to form thriving areas of social enterprise activity. Oldham is now the 35th Social Enterprise Place in the UK.

The bid to become a Social Enterprise Place was coordinated by Oldham-based social enterprise, Upturn, together with Oldham Council. Anwar Ali, Oldham’s social enterprise ambassador and co-founder of Upturn, said: “Oldham has a thriving, innovative and passionate social enterprise community. We want to do more to help them scale while also working with the wider business community to think about how they can use their business to do more good.

“Securing Oldham’s status as a Social Enterprise Place provides an opportunity to build on the town’s culture of entrepreneurism and strong voluntary, community, and faith sector to create a more social economy.”

Cllr Arooj Shah, leader of Oldham Council, said: “Oldham has a distinguished history as a cooperative place where people work together to improve the lives of everyone. So it’s unsurprising but it’s a hugely proud moment to receive this formal recognition as a Social Enterprise UK place. This demonstrates that we are somewhere that social enterprises – organisations that demonstrably better our communities – can establish themselves, grow and thrive.”

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Cllr Mark Hunter

Stockport Council has set out a Green Print for the future of the borough as part of its aim to tackle climate change.

The Climate Action Now (CAN) plan was adopted in 2020 with the ambition for Stockport to be a carbon neutral borough by 2038. It forms part of a ‘Green Print’ for Stockport to be a climate-friendly place to live, work and invest. It sets out the council’s ambition for the borough and that it means business when it comes to tackling climate change.

As a result of the CAN programme, the council has seen more than £6.5m of inward investment and grants awarded to the borough to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change. Further green investment in the council’s infrastructure that will help tackle climate change can be seen in more than £100m being won by the council for electric buses, new public transport infrastructure such as the new Cheadle Railway Station, active travel improvements and a new park for the town centre as part of the Interchange project.

The recent installation of solar panels at eight sites across the council’s estates have seen more than £30,000 saved in electricity costs in July alone. During the full council meeting held on October 4, Cllr Mark Hunter, leader of Stockport Council, unveiled the ‘Green Print’ for the future. He said: “We want Stockport to be a climate-friendly place to live, work and invest.

“We are leading innovative approaches to engagement that are now being adopted by other councils across the country, and the spotlight shone on Stockport at the GM Green summit on Monday shows us to be leaders on this across the region. I have been clear that, while we are doing some excellent work, there is more that we must do. We need more Climate Action and we need it now.”