Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

Mersey Observatory designs on display at Manchester's CUBE Gallery

The entries to the Mersey Observatory design competition are currently on display at the CUBE Gallery, 113-115 Portland Street, Manchester - giving Mancunians a chance to see their neighbours' latest landmark-to-be.

Click here to find out more about the exhibition at CUBE

It's a Trout's Life

Children at Brabin's Endowed School in Chipping have been studying the life of the trout.  They have had fun illustrating its journey to the sea and back in a series of lovely pictures.

Click Download brabins_trout_story.pdf to see the completed work.

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Hoghton Bottoms 14th annual clean up

30 volunteers worked hard over the weekend of 15th-16th March 2008 to remove debris and 100 bags of litter from the River Darwen and its banks at Hoghton Bottoms.

Led by local resident Carol Price, the weekend river clean tackled a kilometre stretch of the River Darwen.  Access was slightly difficult because footpath 13 is currently closed due to a landslide following high flows in January and February.  Volunteers had special permission to use a farm track to reach footpath 14 in the clean up.

Before the clean up this is how the river looked. 

I intend to take the 'after' shot & post here on the BLOG soon.

Mersey Observatory - the view from the top

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7300000/newsid_7301000/7301006.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2

CLICK THE LINK ABOVE to see a video of the BBC's Colin Sykes reporting from the top of the existing radar tower with winning architect Joe Morris.....

Mersey Observatory - winner announced....

The winning design from the Mersey Observatory design competition has been announced this morning......and the winner is Duggan Morris Architects with their 'lamp and bowl' design. Check out the full story here.....

And here's the Liverpool Daily Post's take on it....

If you live in the area, this Thursday's issue of the Crosby Herald will be covering the story in depth. In the meantime you can also comment on their forum, or on this blog.

What do you think?

Hare today ..... gone tomorrow?

Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) are hosting a one day course designed to teach members of the public how to spot and record Brown Hares. The course is open to anyone who would like to help with a survey of Brown Hares that will take place throughout the whole of Lancashire, in springtime.

The course will be held at Bleasdale in the Forest of Bowland, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, between 10.00 am and 3.00pm on Saturday 29th March.

Volunteers will learn how to survey for Brown Hares and will learn how to identify the types of habitat where they might be found. During the afternoon, guests will visit a local farm to see Brown Hares in their natural habitat.

Jane Ashley of Lancashire Wildlife Trust said, “ This training day will give volunteers the expertise to go out and survey Brown Hares. This will help us to get a better picture of how they are doing in our county.”

Training will be provided so no experience is necessary. Lunch will also be provided on the day.

Booking is essential as places are restricted. To reserve a place and for directions and further information, please contact Jane Ashley on 01772 317242 or [email protected].

Crosby Herald pollsters

The Crosby Herald have been running a poll on their website recently to see which was the favourite Mersey Observatory design among their readers. According to the Herald staff, they've received around 10 000 votes and Duggan Morris are out in front with 47% of the vote. You can find the poll on the right hand side of the Herald homepage. Only three more sleeps now until the winner is announced!

Design competitions take over the Mersey!

Has the Mersey Observatory design competition started a trend in the area? Google alerts popped up with this story from the Liverpool Daily Post yesterday telling how students from Liverpool and John Moores have been invited to submit designs for a pier for New Brighton. Lots of students have been commenting on here about the Observatory designs, I wonder if any of them will submit designs to the New Brighton competition? Let us know if you do, folks.......

A Mersey Observatory panorama.....in progress

Our friends at Stardotstar have been very busy in the last few weeks putting together an online archive of the entries from the Mersey Observatory Design Competition. Watch this space for news of when the site goes live......

As part of the site, we decided to include a panorama of photographs from the top of the existing Radar Tower, to give a flavour of the kind of views we will be able to access from the new Observatory (though it'll be taller than the old tower, of course). Without spoiling the surprise of the finished panorama, here are a few pics of Gareth from Stardotstar heroically battling the wind atop the tower to take the many, many pictures needed for the panorama..........and just one tempting view from the top for your enjoyment!

Cheshire's Floating Garden Festival

Preparations are well under way for the Floating Garden Festival, a celebration of two of the county's best assets - its canals and its gardens.  Four historic ex-working boats will be setting off from the four corners of Cheshire and meeting at Middlewich for the Boat and Folk festival on 14th and 15th of June.

The Mersey Basin Campaign is supporting two of the routes, with a range of World Environment Day activities on the Rochdale Canal on 5th June, and a launch event at Audlem on the Shropshire Union on 8th June.

All four boats will be on display at the Boat and Folk Festival, with displays and activities to get involved with.

To find out more, visit the Floating Garden Festival web page or contact Izzy at Action Upper Weaver on 01270 537071 or [email protected]