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A £66.4m programme to build 16 new fire stations across the North West has been given the go-ahead by The Department for Communities and Local Government. The facilities, to be built under the North West Fire and Rescue Service PFI project, will replace ageing and poorly located stations in Cumbria, Merseyside and Lancashire. Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda said: "It's important that we have modern fire stations based at the heart of our communities, ones that welcome the public as well as keeping them safe." 
On your marks at Lancaster Lancaster University's new £20m sports facility has been approved by the city's planners. The sports centre forms part of the university's ongoing investment in its facilities, which has so far totalled nearly £300m. The design and development process has taken two years and the new centre will be accessible to staff, students, schools and the local community. Building will start in September 2008 and the centre will open in the spring of 2010.
Get to the Point Point Developments is to build a £10m, 176-bedroom student accommodation scheme at the junction of Friargate and Great Shaw Street in Preston. The city council's principal planning officer Dave Linley said that, although some commercial premises would be lost by the required demolition, the scheme was necessary to support the University of Central Lancashire's growth plans, which are for 50,000 students by 2012.
Ernst & Young appoints new director The Manchester office of Ernst & Young has recruited Andrea Harrison as a director - a key appointment for the firm's audit team. She joins after 13 years with KPMG, six of those spent in Dubai working with multinational companies based in the Middle East.
Anyone who gets a deal done in the current climate deserves due recognition. The notoriously difficult hotel sector saw a top North West deal this week, when Cumbrian hotel Appleby Manor Country House changed hands for £1.5m, funded by The Royal Bank of Scotland. The 19th century property has been acquired by husband and wife team Mike and Angela Dunbobbin following the retirement of Mike's parents and major shareholders.
The first cut is the deepest Professor Mark Ferguson, the energetic Ulsterman who runs scar treatment company Renovo says much of the success of the drugs has been because 5,000 people in Manchester have volunteered for clinical trials. Also, because he volunteers for every session himself: "It's one way of ensuring they get it right first time," he told guests at his Vital Topics lecture at Manchester Business School on Wednesday night.
View from the nationals “Rome is burning and something must be done.” Sounds disastrous doesn’t it? These are the words of Martin Sinker, a campaigner against overdevelopment in Alderley Edge. The Times swooped on Cheshire to look at plucky villagers fighting the slack application of planning law, which in Alderley and Prestbury means footballers pulling down big old houses and replacing them with bigger new ones. Of course, there was no crass, ostentatious wealth in Alderley until those beastly oikish footballers turned up.
Canapé won't pay A brave effort from TBWA, with a fine choice of European beers at its An Evening with Unconventional Thinkers event, but the British Council for Offices and Liverpool's Crowne Plaza take this week's prize. Rule number one of business dinners "Thou shalt serve rack of lamb" was broken by offering a thoroughly respectable roast duckling. The veggie option looked like beans on toast, but who really cares about that?
TIF for tat The griping has started. Following a congestion charging debate organised for members of Greater Manchester Chamber, the chief protagonists in the ongoing wrangle have spoken out. According to friends of council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, he thought it was particularly unfair that slick corporate wunderkind Andrew Simpson was able to make his case assisted by the wonders of a PowerPoint presentation. Meanwhile, friends of Andrew Simpson say he thought it was unfair that he was sandwiched between Bernstein and fellow TIF supporter Chris Oglesby.
Thinking big quote of the week "Oil at $140 a barrel looks frightening, but it means $14bn is being made a day in the Middle East, creating great liquidity in the global market. That is the engine of recovery and it is tomorrow's opportunity." Former Conservative chairman Steven Norris explains how the downturn/blip/recession is really nothing to worry about in the greater scheme of things.
Stating the obvious quote of the week "Our research supports the notion that the tightening of business credit is forcing businesses to look around for other ways of raising funds." Thanks to Debbie Bell, regional director for Venture Finance for those words of wisdom. But worry not - NatWest, LloydsTSB and Barclays, (to name but three but you can insert the name of most banks), have all told Insider in the last fortnight that they are "open for business". As if they'd say anything else.
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