Latest news with #Salford-based
The Courier
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Courier
Methven solar farm plans on ice as Scottish Government calls in Coupar Angus case
Controversial plans for a solar farm near Methven have been put on ice until the Scottish Government rules on a similar scheme at Coupar Angus. Council planners say they want to know the outcome of the Coupar Angus case before they decide on the Kinnon Park application at Methven. Perth and Kinross Council has rejected the Markethill project at Coupar Angus twice now. The last application was refused in December 2023 after it received 173 objections. Applicant Vickram Mirchandani took his case to the Scottish Government's Planning and Environmental Appeals Division. But before a decision was issued on that appeal, the application was called in by Scottish Ministers last May. A year on, there's been no ruling from Holyrood. And now the council says it wants clarity on national policy before it weighs in on the Kinnon Park solar project planned for Methven. The Methven application was lodged in August 2024. The solar panels plan, for Kinnon Park Farm, off the busy A85 Perth-Crieff road, has received 349 objections. Opponents include Crawford Niven, whose family work the land around their Gloagburn farm shop. He posted a viral video on his popular Crawford's Farm YouTube channel, protesting against the loss of prime agricultural land. The company behind the scheme, NS Solar Kinnon Park, was also criticised for hiring canvassers to go door-to-door enlisting support for the application. Locals said they were pressured to withdraw their objections. A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson told The Courier: 'Given the importance of the issue and a keenness of all interested parties to see a decision made on the Kinnon Park application as soon as possible, the council is regularly seeking updates from Scottish Ministers and the Chief Planner on progress of the called-in Markethill proposal. 'However, to this point, we have not been advised on when a decision is likely to be taken.' Another controversial green energy scheme planned for nearby Tibbermore was rejected in March this year. Councillors heard the Perth green belt was 'under siege' as they unanimously refused an application from Salford-based Ylem Energy for a 49.9MW battery energy storage system. Campaigners have launched an online petition calling on Perth and Kinross Council to pause all solar development approvals until a 'robust, location-sensitive, and proportionate' planning framework is in place. The Collace Solar Objection Group says developers should prioritise rooftop and brownfield sites and protect agricultural land.
Daily Mirror
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Child star who sang 'washing machines live longer with Calgon' has new job
Seb Sargent, 21, went viral mimicking train voices on TikTok - but he started young, singing the Calgon jingle at just two-years-old that foreshadowed his future career Seb Sargent's voice is probably more familiar to you than his face. At just 21, the Salford-based broadcaster and voice artist has lent his vocal cords to everything from rapper Central Cee's stage shows to shop announcements and official railway messages. But it all began with a famous jingle - delivered during nap time at daycare when Seb, aged two-and-a-half, sat bolt upright and sang: "Washing machines live longer with Calgon!" Now, with over 57,000 TikTok followers, Seb blends behind-the-scenes voiceover work with viral impressions of famous UK transport voices. "People call me the 'voice of the UK' or the 'voice of the trains,'" he laughs. "It's surreal." Diagnosed with ADHD as a child, Seb credits his neurodivergence with fuelling his fast-paced life, which juggles voice gigs, songwriting, a Master's degree, journalism training, and restaurant shifts. READ MORE: Elite star's new Netflix thriller is being called 'the worst movie ever' as viewers left furious His early fascination with TV adverts and slogans turned into a career at just 13, when he recorded his first professional voiceover - a voicemail greeting for a wedding car hire company. Seb's big break came at 18, when he recorded voiceovers for Central Cee's London Underground-themed sets at Parklife and Wireless festivals. "I was a uni fresher listening to his tracks at student nights," Seb recalls. "Next thing, my voice was echoing through stadium speakers." Since then, his portfolio has expanded to include official work for the Department for Transport, including safety announcements for the rail network, and in-store messages for retailers like B&M. But it was during the 2020 lockdown, out of boredom, that Seb found an online audience. A TikTok video mixing his real railway announcements with uncanny impressions of other voice artists quickly went viral. "I made a spoof suggesting I was the single voice behind every train announcement. I'm not, of course - but people loved the idea," he says. "I still don't confirm which bits are real and which are impressions. That's part of the fun." One of his most popular videos shows Seb being recognised by a train manager on an Avanti West Coast service. Invited to take the mic, he delivered a live announcement at Manchester Piccadilly - first mimicking a fellow voice artist, then switching to his own voice. "People were staring," he says. "They knew the voice but couldn't quite believe it was coming from me." Despite his growing fame, Seb remains grounded. He recently graduated from Cardiff University with a journalism degree and is now pursuing a Master's in Salford while working shifts for the BBC. "There's a running joke at work that I never shut up," he jokes. Seb hopes to one day voice the Metrolink Bee Network in his home city. "That would be the dream," he says. "I'm already trying to convince them."
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Plan for Oswaldtwistle woodland battery farm set to be approved
A controversial battery storage farm in woodland in Lancashire is set to be approved by (North) wants to build the complex near Oswaldtwistle, near the M65 and Lottice Brook in the east of the Salford-based firm's application to Hyndburn Council for approval of the 60-megawatt Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on land at Knuzden Moss Farm off Stanhill Road will be debated by the authority's planning committee on proposal has generated 38 objections amid concerns about damage to moorland, road safety and traffic, and the site's impact on wildlife including bats. The plant would see energy stored in batteries and put back into the National Grid at times of high demand. 'Green energy' An officer's report recommends that it should be approved with 21 conditions including a time limit of 40 years (or the end of electricity supply to the National Grid), the submission of emergency and safety plans and steps to protect amphibians, reptiles, hedgehogs, bats and wild document said: "Current government guidance indicates that energy storage facilities such as the one proposed form part of the government's energy strategy to support the transition to low carbon and renewable energy sources."Whilst the proposed development would not benefit the local community directly through the provision of low cost energy for example, it would provide a benefit to the wider network to ensure that network capacity can meet demand as the country relies more heavily on green energy." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
BBC News
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Manchester: 'I didn't know Elizabeth Gaskell - now I write in her house'
What is it like to be a writer-in-residence at the home of the Cranford novelist, when you haven't read any of her work?Three women have been chosen for the role at Elizabeth Gaskell's House in Manchester precisely because they "didn't know her".In the quest to appeal to a new audience, the museum's director Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd reflects: "We need to see [her work] through other people's eyes."The Victorian author's stories weave in love, bereavement and the fight for social justice, at a time when the country had a powerful empire and faced huge economic shifts she is not as widely known as fellow 19th Century writers like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Guruleen Kahlo, who is in the final year of her English degree, is one of the museum's new writers-in-residence and says it's a "massive shame she has been left off the list".Gaskell was inspired by her husband to take up writing after the death of their baby son and Guruleen says she is "curious" to find out more about the novelist, whom she describes as a feminist, adding: "Given Manchester's history with the suffragettes, she probably laid some of the groundwork.""She had the independence to take her children to Europe by herself, she's clearly very different to a lot of her contemporaries and I think that's fascinating." The museum tends to attract foreign visitors and literature graduate Princess Arinola Adegbite, who will also be a writer-in-residence, says she hopes their work will "get more English people to be interested again in this aspect of the culture - it's for any background".She says she is "intrigued" to explore "how Elizabeth's domestic space both confined and liberated her creative voice".After reading "mainly things written by men" for her music and drama degree, scriptwriter Georgia Affonso, 29, hopes her new role as writer-in-residence will be "a good opportunity to get to grips with why maybe I am a bit put off" by classical literature."I have already started finding points of connection that I'm excited about," she says."Social inequality is something I encounter throughout my work, and writing is one of the ways I try to figure out how we fix it." On Princess's first visit to the Regency-style villa - where the Gaskell family moved in 1850 - the Salford-based writer says she experienced "initial confusion", thinking "why would someone this high class care [about social justice]?"She says she has since learnt the author "was a kind person" who "didn't only explore things that affected her, she explored issues that never were directly relevant, like women having kids outside of marriage and being tricked into those type of relationships by wealthier men".The 24-year-old is also interested in Gaskell's analysis of the Victorian era's "power dynamics" of social classes and between "people in the colonized world - like in Africa and India - and people in the Western white world" and the "relationship between men and women of any race". Princess describes Gaskell, who was part of the Unitarian Christian community, as "very enlightened"."I consider myself as a spiritual liberal Christian and I liked how accepting her idea of God was... I also think that connects to creativity," she says."I want to embody in the writing that nuance that women can be homemakers but also creatives."She hopes to create poetry inspired by Gaskell's crosshatching style of writing, which was used to save paper and who oversees the historical house, says she find it "emotional" to hear the trio's experiences and ideas, adding she "completely understands and respects there are barriers"."On the other side I know we have a great offer and it is interesting and relevant," she says."But it's about how do we tell that story as a small struggling independent museum?" "There are tonnes of barriers and she's also a woman - she isn't deemed interesting because she was married, she had children, there isn't a lot of controversy about her either," she describes Gaskell as "complex", and adds: "She was a working mother… and she wrote real characters, who are three-dimensional with dialects."They are not completely good, not completely bad."She isn't on the curriculum in schools but if you are from Manchester, I can't think of a more accessible way to learn about the Industrial Revolution than through her novels." Princess, who was born in Jamaica to Nigerian parents, says she believes that "English heritage is everyone's heritage, even people from colonised countries, because we inspired English culture from cotton, diamonds, the clothing".She adds: "Everyone has a connection to English heritage even if you felt marginalised from it - so come and see it and be inspired by it." Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) Born in London in 1810, Elizabeth Gaskell moved to Cheshire after her mother's death and spent her childhood with her aunt in Knutsford - the inspiration for CranfordFollowing the death of her baby son, she was encouraged to take up writing by her husband Reverend William GaskellThey lived in Manchester, then a centre of industry and radical politicsShe wrote eight novels alongside shorter works and a posthumous biography of fellow writer and her friend Charlotte BronteHer works include Cranford, North and South, Mary Barton and Wives and DaughtersGaskell died in 1865, just before concluding Wives and Daughters, and is buried in Knutsford Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
