Play Park Plans to go on Show

Concept designs for a new "natural" play area in Morecambe's Happy Mount Park are due to be revealed.

Based on the underused mini-golf area at the rear of the park, the play area has been designed on the principles of "natural play".

This approach encourages more creativity in the design of play environments using natural elements such as trees, rocks, mini-hills and other natural play features.

Earlier this year, young people were asked to work with the council and its designers to share ideas of what could be included in the new play area.

The comments have been incorporated into the initial concept designs, which will go on show between 10th and 16th October.

They will be available to view in the park and on the Lancaster City Council website at: www.lancaster.gov.uk/happymountpark.

Council officers will be in the kiosk at the centre of the park to discuss the plans between 3.30pm and 5.00pm on Thursday 15th October.

The council’s Play Rangers will also be in the park between 4.00pm and 5.00pm on the same day.

“We are very grateful for all the help we’ve received so far from young people in designing the new play area," commented Coun June Ashworth, Cabinet member for children and young people, "and their ideas have played a key role in shaping the plans.

“On its completion the play area will transform an underused area of Happy Mount Park and we’re all looking forward to seeing the designs come to life.”

Comments made during the consultation will be taken into account when producing the final design for the play area.

The design and build of the play area is funded by grants totalling more than £114,000 from the BIG Lottery, Lancashire County Council Play Builder, Community Design and Arts Council England.

• Comments on the plans should be made by email to hryan@lancaster.gov.uk or by telephoning 01524 582822 by October 16.

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Fall under the 'Godspell'

Local theatre group, About Theatre will stage what's believed to be the first ever production of Stephen Schwartz’ Godspell in Lancaster in November – the first of the religious rock operas and a modern day retelling of the New Testament parables.

The Grand will be host to a story of a man filled with goodness and wisdom, his struggle to share his love with the world and the tragedy of his betrayal.

This production is the second in memory of local theatre enthusiast and director, Roger Bradley and all proceeds will be donated to Cancer Research.

• About Theatre presents ‘Godspell’ at 7.30pm at the Grand Theatre, Lancaster from 19th – 21st November 2009. All tickets £10 all tickets including programme. All proceeds to Rosemere Cancer Foundation for melanoma research. More info on About Theatre at: www.abouttheatre.co.uk

• All bookings can be made through the Grand Theatre Tel. 01524 64695 (between 10.00am & 3.00pm) or book online at www.lancastergrand.co.uk

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In Review: Of Mice and Men

By John Steinbeck; Directed by Kevin Dyer

The Dukes, Thursday 24th September – Sunday 24th October

Review by John Freeman

The Dukes publicity describes John Steinbeck's own play of his powerful novel of ranch hands, death and yes, mice, as one of the true American classics. That's a pretty tough reputation for anyone to take on the stage play, but director Kevin Dyer and the ten-strong cast deliver the goods with an assured, riveting production that holds you from beginning to end.

That's no small achievement: with an opening act that's about an hour and a half long (the second is shorter), some might balk at seeing a play set in the 1930s American depression, wondering what relevance it might have to our own lives today. (Of course, it has). But thanks to some terrific acting - not least from brilliant newcomer Andrew Ashford as the slow, strong and tragic Lennie - the play simply flies by as you're drawn into the desperate lives of wandering ranch hands seeking work, armed with high hopes of securing a better life and an uneasy partnership to get them by.

Throughout, backed by a simple but effective set design by Alison Heffernan, the entire ensemble cast, which includes Paul Dodds as Lennie's long-suffering companion, Noel White as Slim, Chris Jacks as the put-upon Crooks and Cloudia Swann as Curley's anonymous wife, give outstanding performances, conjuring up a terrible time of uneasy lifestyles with work a scarcity, the hopes that things will get better... and the grim reality of their lives, as events spiral out of control.

Of Mice and Men may be packed with metaphor and allusion, but the story itself remains a relevant today as it was when it was first written in the depressed 1930s. None of the power of that story is lost here.

The Dukes has been raising the bar with its recent productions, with plenty of deserved praise for its work such as the recent Sabbat. But thanks to the combined work of this fine cast and production team - even Spikey the dog, who gets his own bio in the programme - the bar has surely been raised another notch.

It was no surprise that that were more than a few tears from some members of the audience as this play came to its grim, unsettling conclusion, a finale mirroring earlier, seemingly matter-of-fact day-to-day events on a farm. This is a simply unmissable production: all credit to everyone involved.

• Of Mice and Men runs at The Dukes until Saturday 24th October. Ticket prices range from £16 - £8.50. Schools and Group Discounts Available: call 01524 598500 For Information. If you are under 26, free tickets are available (Tue and Wed). For performance times, visit our What's On page or visit The Dukes web site


• The Dukes has a Fan Page on Facebook here

Other Reviews


• Lancashire Evening Post

"Kevin Dyer's direction, Alison Heffernan's set, Brent Lees' lighting and Mark Mellville's music all add their own subtle hues to a great story given a great production."

• The Stage

"Keeping the emotional balance between their brain and brawn and our sympathy and repulsion can be a problem [in this play] but here the interaction between Paul Dodds as a determined but doomed George and Andrew Ashford as a giant of a Lennie is handled superbly. Remarkably this is Ashford’s first professional role so to make him as believable as he does is all the more of an achievement."


More Links


• The National Steinbeck Center

• Martha Heasley Cox Centre for Steinbeck Studies

• Of Mice and Men on BBBC Bitesize

• Of Mice and Men: The Student Survival Guide

• Production photos in this review by George Coupe

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Organ and Trumpet Recital opens Lancaster Cathedral’s Autumn Season

Lancaster Cathedral’s Autumn Season of concerts and events begins on Friday 9th October with a recital featuring internationally known trumpeter John Coulton and David Dunnett, Organist of Norwich Cathedral.

The programme will include works by, among others, John Stanley, Henry Purcell and Giuseppe Verdi. The Cathedral’s 1888 Ainscough pipe organ has just been refurbished by Henry Willis & Sons of Liverpool and the combination of the organ and Coulton’s virtuosic trumpet-playing promises an unforgettable evening for all who attend.

This season of concerts and events at Lancaster Cathedral also features pianist Costas Fotopoulos in concert on 6 November (7.30 pm) and a plainsong workshop and introduction to Gregorian chant on Saturday 14 November (2.00pm – 5.00pm, St Walburge’s Chapel).

The Cathedral Christmas Craft Fair, always a popular event, will take place in the Cathedral Social Centre on Wednesday 18 November (from 7.30pm-9.00pm).

The season ends on Friday 11th December (8:00pm) when the Cathedral will welcome the Lancashire Sinfonietta for its annual holiday concert by candlelight.

• Tickets for the opening concert are £10/£8 and the performance begins at 7.30pm.

• Tickets and further information about all of these events are available from Lancaster Tourist Information (tel: 01524 32878) or the Cathedral Events Co-ordinator (tel: 01524 384820 or email: events@lancastercathedral.org.uk).

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Health campaigners to lobby top Tories

North West wellbeing and health campaign group Our Life is lobbying top Tories gathering in Manchester next week at the Conservative Party annual conference to call for action to be taken on irresponsible drinks promotions to tackle the rising unhealthy drinking culture in the region.

At a fringe meeting at the conference on 6 October 2009 entitled “Is Alcohol Too Cheap?” Our Life will trail research, to be launched later this month during Alcohol Awareness Week, showing that North West people want government to take firm action to facilitate healthier choices and protect local communities.

As we previously reported, the North West has one the worst drinking levels in the country and in Lancaster and Morecambe alone, the 2007/08 figures produced by the North West Public Health Observatory (PDF link) cite some 797 alcohol attributable violent crimes; 15 sexual offences attributable to alcohol; and 23% of Lancaster’s 16 an over population estimated to be engaging in binge drinking.

“Next week in Manchester we’ll be informing David Cameron and the Conservatives that the case for action to address alcohol harm is compelling," said Our Life chief executive Dr Alison Giles, "and that avoiding regulation to reduce the burden on business is misguided when alcohol harm costs the taxpayer £10 billion per year.

“The attitudes of people in the North West and health statistics combined should act as a strong message to North West politicians in the forthcoming election that leadership on alcohol issues is a necessity.”

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Award-winning Journalist to deliver Lancaster University Peace Lecture

Award winning Australian foreign correspondent Sophie McNeill has been invited to deliver the Lancaster University 2009 Richardson Institute Annual Peace Lecture.

Sophie has covered some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous stories from areas such as Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan (from where she recently covered the Presidential elections), Pakistan and Gaza and she has been based most recently in Jerusalem, Beirut and New York.

A political activist since the age of nine, at just 15, she made her first documentary, Awaiting Freedom - traveling alone to East Timor to film the health crisis crippling the country. The film received national praise and Sophie was named WA Young Person of the Year at age 16.

Regarded as a seasoned foreign correspondent although still just 23, currently working for Dateline SBS in Lebanon, her journalism has been praised as ‘exceptional’ by the celebrated journalist John Pilger.

Her talent and courage as a journalist and her commitment to tell the stories of those affected by conflict and injustice have been recognised in the wide range of awards she has received, including the highest award for an Australian journalist – the Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year 2008 - for her film, Palestine: Divided it Falls, made for SBS.

"Going to another country alone, let alone a war-torn country where women are not well received showed a lot of courage and confidence," said the judges of the film. "She certainly has the courage and sense of justice needed to make a great journalist [and] is a fine example of why we need to start thinking globally."

She was also awarded Western Australia's Young Person of the Year Award (when she was just 16), was a New York Film Festival finalist in 2006 and was honoured as the 2008 Young Woman of the Year and Journalist of the Year, an award given by Australia’s women’s magazine YEN.

This is the fourth annual peace lecture at the Richardson Institute which was established in 1959 as the first peace research centre in Britain. The inaugural lecture was given by the renowned Middle East correspondent of The Independent Robert Fisk, who is an alumnus of Lancaster University. It was standing room only at a packed last year’s peace lecture which was delivered by the veteran political campaigner Tony Benn.

• Sophie's free public lecture called ‘Reporting from conflict zones: telling the stories of the victims’ will be held at Lancaster University (Management School Lecture Theatre 8) on Thursday 15th October,6.00-8.00pm.


• For more information about the Richardson Institute for Peace and Conflict Research visit: www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/richinst/

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Fill in a survey and win a Christmas hamper

Lancaster City Council is asking for just a few minutes of your time for a chance to win a luxury Christmas hamper worth £125.

The council's Cycling Town (CT) Team is carrying out its annual travel survey to find out what modes of transport residents most often use to get themselves to work and what prevents them from using others.

The results of the survey will help the team develop more ways in which it can encourage more people to travel by bike.

Completed questionnaires will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a number of prizes including a hamper filled with a selection of delicious food and drink provided by Booths, Scotforth.

The simple questionnaire is available online at www.celebratingcycling.org or you can request a paper copy by contacting the CT Team on 01524 582392 or by email to celebratingcycling@lancaster.gov.uk.

Completed surveys must be returned by Monday, 14 December.

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Freegle Co-op Network Arrives in Lancaster

Just launched in our area is Lancaster Morecambe Freegle, part of the national online re-use network Freegle, formed in the UK as a friendly local alternative to the US-based Freecycle Network.

In less than three weeks since Freegle was formed, 193 local groups like the new local group – 37% of former Freecycle groups and representing 892,000 members (43% cent of the total UK Freecycle membership) – have moved to the new co-operative umbrella organisation, and many more groups are expected to follow.

The people behind Freegle, which means Free Giving, Locally, Easily, say the new network offers greater freedom for people in the UK to organise the way we work to suit local needs, without the rigid management hierarchy imposed by The Freecycle Network.

Freegle’s sole objective is to enable individuals to ‘do their bit’ by keeping household goods out of landfill by giving away things they don’t want, to people who can use them. This will be a truly grassroots co-operative run by and for local people.

Freegle was formed by UK volunteers asked to leave The Freecycle Network after requesting greater autonomy for more than two million members in this country. Freecycle had around 1400 volunteers who ran local groups and of these 450 of them have been lobbying the US management for changes to the organisation structure and way of working over the past few months. It is not possible for disenfranchised local groups to continue with their existing name: breakaway groups in the past have faced legal action from The Freecyle Network, which vigorously defends ownership of its trademark. (For more on this, there are reports here in Recyling and Waste Management News, The Ecologist and the Daily Telegraph.

"The UK has been a big player in Freecycle’s global network, accounting for approximately one quarter of all re-used household items saved from landfill, and with more members per head of population than any other country," a spokesperson for Freegle said. "There are already millions of people in the UK who offer unwanted household items for reuse by others, rather than dumping them."

“The creation of Freegle was inevitable when dedicated Freecycle volunteers who simply asked for greater autonomy in the UK were asked to leave and their groups closed," explained Louise Belcher, the Lancaster Morecambe Freegle group owner/moderator, echoing the views of the former UK director of Freecycle, Neil Morris. "This left us with no alternative but to set up an alternative for our members in the UK. In the end it has been the best possible outcome.

• Find Lancaster Morecambe Freegle at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lancaster-Morecambe-Freegle


• The new Freegle site is open to everyone who wants to do their bit for the planet - just visit www.iloveFreegle.org

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