Welcome to This is Rammy, the podcast dedicated to Ramsbottom, the small town just North of Manchester.

The plans for Ramsbottom Police Station have been approved. The application is for two ground floor shops as well as eight apartments above. The style is mentioned to be in keeping with how the area would have originally looked.

If you remember, the person who purchased the land in February last year when the Police Station was auctioned off was our very own Councillor Rob Hodkinson and his wife.

One comment that Rob said back in November 2015 as written in Bury Times was:

But Ramsbottom MP David Nuttall and Ramsbottom ward councillors Ian Bevan and Rob Hodkinson have raised concerns about the plans to sell the building, fearing a rise in crime if there is no police presence in the town.

How do you feel about this? I was looking at the planning permission and reading through the comments, several people have complained about the drainage on the current site as well as several people complaining about the fact the proposed building will be much bigger than the existing bank.

It’s true, initially I looked at the plans and thought “that’s an impressive looking building” without considering the implications of what would happen with the land around the proposed shops and residences.

It’s not clear exactly what will be in the shops that are created, potentially it could be more cafes, which would be disappointing as we do seem to be getting into a cafe bar scene a little too much. It would be nice to have some proper shops back. One argument is that shops find it difficult to compete with online. I agree, when you only factor in cost online is almost always going to win. However, I am a firm believer in shopping local. I do still buy certain things online.

One positive note is that Cllr Hodkinson did say with regards to the shop types:

It is important that we maintain the balance between the night and day time economy.

I feel if you can buy it locally, you should, even if it’s slightly more expensive. It’s less about you saving a few £’s and more about the area remaining enjoyable.

There’s not exactly a glum, gloomy future ahead for Ramsbottom, but it’s easy to listen to the negativity and believe this. If you feel that the area is changing for the worse though, rather than complaining on Facebook and forums, get off your arse and do something about it. Write to our Councillors and MP David Nuttall. It’s one thing to say that they never listen, but it’s another to never actually try in the first place.

Me and my son took a trip to Ramsbottom Market to pick up some fruit and veg this weekend. It was the usual Saturday market, not the speciality farmers market that appears each month. My aim was to get him to pick out some fruit that he would enjoy as he’s very fussy and doesn’t like fruit much at all. Not only was it great to see him being involved picking out the fruit (he chose Oranges and Kiwis) but the customer service was fantastic too.

We were paying for our fruit when the lady serving us asked my son if he’d like a banana, he said yes please and the lady shouted for “Dave, give this little lad a banana”. My son ran over and took it off him like some kind of ape. I did have to remind him to say thank you, but he did. I think the excitement got to him.

On a weekend where there were several shock results in the FA Cup, our own Ramsbottom United sadly were unable to continue in this vein and come out the victors against Colne.

After Tuesday’s match was postponed due to an apparent fault on the generators causing the ground to be swallowed by darkness (not for the first time in recent weeks in Ramsbottom) we were then looking on to our match on Saturday the 28th of January.

Ramsbottom United faced Colne at home and were sadly overcome by a more determined side losing three nil on the night. Despite this though, there is some good news as we had one of the highest attendances in a league match this season with 269 people in attendance. Thanks to everyone who came out to watch the match.

This result now leaves Ramsbottom in 13th position in the tables.

The next match for Ramsbottom United is away to Ossett Albion on Saturday the 4th of February.

League Table

Ramsbottom United Results

If you want to check out what events are coming up in and around Ramsbottom take a look at the events page, here are some upcoming events from that list:

https://www.thisisrammy.co.uk/event/beginners-latin-american-dancing-classes/

Open Mic Night

Wednesday, February 15th – from 7pm

Jonny Shock and Joanne with another selection of talented local performers!

All musical styles welcome.

Check out the full events calendar for most upcoming Ramsbottom events, but here are some other great sources too:

Bury Times Ramsbottom Events Page.

East Lancs Railway Facebook events page.

Your Local Bury events page.

Tower FM Events Calendar

If YOU have an event you would like to be included in a future podcast episode, get in touch.

Thanks to everyone who shared last weeks episode of the podcast on the various social sites like Facebook and Twitter:

Ramsbottom United, Peter Riley, SuzieQ, Henry (dotcomdecorator), Levanter

If you’re not yet following the social channels for This is Rammy, please do so and share the podcast episodes, maybe you’ll hear your name mentioned next week.

Bury Times: Former Ramsbottom Police Station to be turned into shops and apartments

Bury Council Planning Application 60708

How to contact your MP and Councillors

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Reviews are very much appreciated, if you would like to leave a review, you can do so easily on iTunes or the UK Podcasters page.

The post Ramsbottom Police Station plans and how a Banana made a difference – Episode 86 appeared first on This is Rammy.