Your Square Issue 2 by TOTALLY STOCKPORT

YOUR SQUARE ISSUE 2 2015

Mr Bloom: Coming to the Square this August!

Swinton Gateway: A new community hub

News: Stories from around Swinton

Swinton Leisure: We speak to Dave Spencer

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Get Active: Photos from the big day

PLUS GREAT OFFERS & BARGAINS

Your Square/Centre Information

Your Square/Centre News

WELCOME

MEET MR BLOOM

A WORD FROM THE CENTRE MANAGER - DAVE SIMISTER Welcome to Issue two of ‘Your Square’ and judging by the reaction to the first issue we have certainly made an impact. Since the last issue there has been a great deal of activity down here in the centre and, looking ahead, we have some very exciting things on the way. Last month we had the first of our new ‘in-centre’ events with our ‘Let’s Get Active’ day. The sun came out and it seems so did you for a fantastic, fun packed day. The particular highlights were the climbing wall, bungee trampolines, virtual games and an impromptu training session from the Swinton Lions. The day was rounded off by a performance from Britain’s got Talent’s Mr Zip on the Real radio XS stage. The event was really well attended and it gave us a chance to introduce our new ‘friend of the centre’ Sidney the Swinton Squirrel, you may have seen him around as he is collecting bargains and deals that you can read about on twitter @swintonsquirrel. On a more serious note last month also saw us introduce the charity we are collecting for this year - The Agnes Hopkins Memorial Centre, as it is just round the corner we called in to

see some of the great things they are doing there and the worthy cause they are. This month we also had a visit from the volunteers at ‘Incredible Edible’ who planted out our planter below the stairs with some fantastic herbs. You will see that we have some great events planned, there are also some spectacular offers to be had from the stores (make sure you use the vouchers as they won’t be around forever) and come and see us down here in Swinton Square, we have some exciting new brands and you will be surprised at the changes we have for you. Enjoy this issue and I look forward to seeing you here very soon.

Contact Dave: 0161 728 4388 dave.simister@gvafm.co.uk Other resources: swintonsquare.co.uk @swintonsquare facebook.com/swintonsquaresalford Read YOUR SQUARE online at www.yoursquare.org

YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD MANAGEMENT TEAM We work with residents across Swinton and Pendlebury, making sure they feel fully informed about what’s happening in their area, empowered to have their say in the decisions being made and able to get involved in improving things for themselves. Community Committee Local priorities 2015-16 • Working to increase footfall and improve the vibrancy of Swinton town centre. • Supporting young people to get engaged in positive activities • Maximising the use of green spaces in the neighbourhood • Supporting community groups and individuals with growing projects

Karen Smith Neighbourhood Manager Kelly Wray Neighbourhood Development Officer Jo Skeets Admin Officer

0161 607 1965 salford.gov.uk/communitypriorities @salfordcouncil

STAGECOACH SERVICE 38 Stagecoach Cross City Service 38 operates between Manchester MRI/Hospitals and Farnworth via Manchester City Centre, Salford, Swinton, Walkden and Little Hulton. It operates up to every ten minutes, seven days a week and all buses offer free WiFi A 7-day megarider can be bought from the driver for just £10 on any 38 service bus, which offers unlimited trav-

el on any Stagecoach bus within Greater Manchester for seven days. A £1 single fare is also available on Service 38 between Swinton Civic Centre and Albert Square/Piccadilly www.stagecoachbus.com

SWINTON SQUARE GARDEN PARTY • SATURDAY 8th AUGUST Here in the Square we will be playing host to CBeebies’ Mr Bloom as part of our big Garden Party on Saturday 8th August. It’s a fun-packed day for all the family, with Punch and Judy, facepainters and a host of Children’s activities including ideas on how to ‘grow your own’ with local group Incredible Edible Salford. Come along, relax in our deckchairs and soak up the live entertainment which Real

Radio XS will be providing throughout the day. Swinton Lions and Sidney the Swinton Squirrel will also be in attendance and the main man himself - Mr Bloom will be turning up at 1pm. It promises to be a fantastic day.

WIN!

We are offering ten lucky children the opportunity for a ‘meet and greet’ with Mr Bloom himself. All you have to do is drop us an email titled BLOOM to info@shoutmediauk.com and don’t forget to include your name and telephone number. If you are one of the lucky winners, we will notify you before 31st July

INCREDIBLE EDIBLE Incredible Edible was founded in Todmorden in 2007 by a group of people who were looking for a way in which people could help improve their own community. They decided that the answer was food. Grow-your-own food. Everyone understands food. Food could get people talking and even better, it could inspire people to take action. So the planting began and other towns soon followed suit. There are now community gardens in housing associations, town squares, pubs, and even castles. Incredible Edible Salford recently visited the square to begin work on transforming the area, completing Phase One by creating a small herb garden in one of our planters. As reported above, IES will also be in attendance at our Garden Party, so come along and say hello!

CHILLI FESTIVAL

SWINTON GATEWAY

SATURDAY 19th SEPTEMBER

FROM MONDAY 20th JULY

As part of the Food Festival we will be hosting the ‘Chilli Festival’ in Swinton Square that will make us the ‘Hot Zone’ of the main festival! With chilli offerings from around the globe including chilli ice cream it’s going to be a day to remember, with entertainment from a samba band plus a kids’ fairground will be there to distract from the burning in your mouth!

The new Swinton Gateway will welcome local residents through its doors from Monday 20 July. The new centre will be a hub for the community and includes the new Swinton Library, children’s centre, free public PCs, community rooms and more, with health services coming later in the year. The centre will officially open in September with a range of activities and events, but everyone is welcome to visit this new resource for Swinton from 20 July.

Your Square/Meet the Tennant

Your Square/Events

DAVE SPENCER SWINTON LEISURE And you’re also training the next generation of snooker stars? The North West Junior Academy has been running for six years now. Reg Davies (the famous snooker referee and coach) and I both wanted to get kids back into snooker so we started the academy. It runs for two sessions a week: Wednesdays from 5pm -7pm and Saturdays from 11am-1pm. It’s only £6 for two hours and they get proper coaching. We’ve won a lot of awards for this scheme, awards that normally go to football and rugby coaching. Reg is now 83 and he’s still going. He’s a credit to the sport.

Swinton Leisure was opened by Bob & Joan Spencer in 1980 and is now run by their son, Dave. Many people will be aware of this sports complex but if you’ve never been inside, you’ll be amazed by what is on offer in this huge space. Your uncle John was a three times World Snooker Champion, can we assume snooker is a big thing in the family? Yes, the whole family played. Of the three bothers my uncle Peter was probably better than uncle John but he got a steady job with the council. Uncle John was the youngest of the three and had nothing to lose. Your dad opened this place in 1980... Yes, back then it was just the snooker room. I was here then but I took over in 2000 when my mum and dad retired. It’s changed quite a bit since it opened.. The bowling area was added in 1985. Indoor bowling was a big thing back then, with the Super Bowl on ITV. The gym was the last addition to the place in terms of expansion, it opened in 1995 and took us to over 20,000 square feet of space. We should point out that it’s proper indoor flat green bowling, not Ten Pin. Yes. The bowling club runs from September to April because in the Summer they’re all playing outdoors. They have

14 leagues made up of 127 teams and they bowl from ten in the morning to nine at night! Then, in April, when the bowling finishes, Lancashire County Darts take over the space. That’s a serious standard of competition... Yes, the Swinton Ladies Darts team captain is Lisa Ashton, who is the current DBO World Champion. We’ve had a lot of high quality players through the doors and we run six or seven events over the course of the summer. Some are open events and some are closed to Lancashire County. Even though the big darts area is only open in the Summer, we have other boards around the centre so people can come in and have a game any time of the year. What membership schemes do you operate? For the gym yes, it’s membership only but it’s not one of those memberships that you can’t get out of, you can cancel it whenever you want. Pool and snooker has a £1 admission charge or you can get a membership for £10 a year and then it’s free. For bowling, you need a membership to play in the league but you can just come in as a casual player if there are no events on. You’ve expanded about as much as you can, are there any other plans for the future? We would like to create some disabled access in the near future. We applied for lottery funding but weren’t successful. Despite that, it is a facility that we’re keen to provide.

Wellington Road, M27 4BR www.swintonleisure.co.uk 0161 794 0672

LET’S GET ACTIVE The sun was shining on Saturday 27th June as the crowds flooded into Swinton Square for a packed day of family fun. The Square was transformed for the one day ‘Get Active’ event, with free activities for the whole family including: a Climbing Wall, Bucking Bronko, Surf Simulator, Bungee Trampolines, virtual rides including Car Racing and shooting along with Face painters for the kids. The Swinton Lions were on hand to demonstrate some ball handling skills and were brilliant at getting the kids involved in the fun. Swinton Squirrel turned up with his own brand of fun and Real Radio XS provided entertainment on the big stage. There was even a visit from Britain’s Got Talent favourite ‘Mr Zip’, who gave a rendition of his famous ‘Where’s my Keys? Where’s my Phone?’ amongst others. Centre Manager Dave Simister said, “This was the first event in our new initiative for the year and we are all really pleased with the great success it has been. It gave local people a chance to come down to the Square and try out some things they may not normally do and it was encouraging to see fresh faces able to experience some of the new brands we have on offer here. We were collecting for our charity, the Agnes Hopkins Memorial Centre, so thanks to everyone who came down and donated”.

Your Square/Square Deals & Special Offers

4 x Sausage Rolls for the price of 3: £2.70 2 x Meat & Potato or Meat pies: £2.64 4 x Scones: £1.50 3 x Gingerbreads: £1

FREE sunglasses with any glasses purchase over £69

13 The Parade

15 The Parade

Spend £30+ and get £5 off. Spend £50+ and get £10 off 75-83 Upper Parade Square

THE CHOP SHOP

MOBILE 4 U Selfie Stick £9.99 iPhone 4 4s LCD screen replacement £25.

40 X 30 canvas £35 off with this voucher

Extra Lean Skirt Mince £2.20/ Ib

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GLEN’S CUSHIONS AND PILLOWS

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Spend £20+ and get FREE pair of bounce back pillows open unit Kiosk 2

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Free Heels with every Stick-on-sole Every second key ½ price

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BRIDGFORDS ESTATE AGENTS

VALUEVISION

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