LivingIssue 1 - April 2011 - £1.25

The heart of culture in Ellesmere Port

All articles were written and ed-ited by Hayley Saul.

Many thanks has gone to the staff who made this venture possible.

There are also special thanks towards

Nathalie Griffith and Lily Tucker

For their support. It is appreciated

Page 3 - Whats New?

Page 4-5 - Shopping in Ellesmere Port

Page 6 -7 - Interview with Mayor Gareth Anderson

Page 8 -9 - Back To The Future: The Boat Museam.

Page 10 - Opinions Matter: Shoplifting

Page 11 - Holdi Review

EP Living - Page 2

Contents

Staff

Dear ReaderHi Everyone!

Welcome to the first edition of EP Living, your guide to culture and life in Ellesmere Port.As this is our first issue, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Hayley Saul and I was born and raised in Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, where I still live. I attended Rossmore County Primary School and then went onto Sutton High School. I also went to college at West Cheshire College in the Ellesmere Port campus, before going to University in Chester. I have also worked in Argos in Ellesmere Port town centre since 2005, so as you can tell I have a lot of ties to my hometown and I am a proud member of the community.This is why I have produced this magazine to show other people how amazing Ellesmere Port is and how full of culture we are. As Ellesmere Port has undergone such as radical facelift within the past 5 years, its safe to assume that our town is moving forward with society, developing in such a way that warrants appreciation and admiration. So this monthly magazine will be an update and an inside look into the world that is Ellesmere Port. There will be more interviews from success stories of people from Ellesmere Port, to updates on the developments of the town. It will also include reviews on restaurants and bars as well as a weekly opinion piece on issues that you can get in touch with us about. We will also feature more about the history of Ellesmere Port and how the town came to be.But for now, enjoy the magazine and we hope you enjoy it!

From

Hayley

Letter from the Editor

EP Living - Page 3

What’s New

What’s going on in The Port?

A programme aimed at entic-ing tennis beginners and those wanting to improve their skills will be opening this summer at West Cheshire College. The programme is aimed at getting people back into tennis and raising awareness about the sport. Martin Barrett, Council Sports Development Officer, said: “The coaching is carried out in a friend-ly and progressive manner and everyone taking part will have the opportunity to either join

New programme to get adults “Back 2 Tennis”

Top store gets a much needed face lift

Shoppers in the Port Arcades were welcomed by the new appearance of one of its most popular shops. Argos, the UK’s only catalogue retailer, has had a complete make over to their shop floor including new stock checking devices and displays. Darren Reader, the Store Manager, said: “The shop looks fantastic. It is a great improvement and has already been welcomed by the public and staff members who are more enthusiastic about working in their new shop”This is only a small part of the way in which the Port Arcades are changing. Outside, in what used to be the car park, is now the structure of 3 units for shops, and the area beside Ellesmere Port Market has been opened up with making an entrance for another unit. Rachel Hornby, who has been shopping at the Ellesmere Port store fo years, said: “I was shocked to see how wonderful the store looks, its like a breath of fresh air. You can tell the staff are pleased with it too.”For more information about the Ellesmere Port Arcades, log onto www.portarcades.com

Ellesmere Port City Tennis Club or simply gain the confidence to make better use of tennis facilities in the area.”A taster session on Saturday the 7th May where the courts will host free sessions as well as all rackets and balls being provided free of charge. The programme is open for all adults with all abili-ties to attend.

For more information, or to • book a place, telephone the Sports Development office on 01606 288 556.

Looking good: Argos, Port Arcades, Ellesmere Port

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The Begginers guide to

Shopping in Ellesmere Port

Best bargains, luscious lunches and super staff. Welcome to Ellesmere Port!

Bargains: Ellesmere Port Market

Relax: A well deserves rest

Shopping in Ellesmere Port is both a treat and an experience. Shying away from the outlet centre at Cheshire Oaks is a positive for those looking for the real bargains. The Port Arcades, opened in 1991, has a wide range of shops including high street brands such as New Look, Argos and Boots to bargain stores like Home Bargains, B&M and Wilkinson’s. The Port Arcades also has access to Ellesmere Port Market, a renowned centre due to the wide range of choice all under one roof. It also has a food court right in the centre that caters for all tastes. There are stores from clothing and home

furnishing, to green grocers and butchers to pet stores and has the ever-decreasing knitting accessories.

Elaine White, a frequent shopper in the town centre, said: “I come down to the town every weekend to do my weekly shop and to pick up treat for the kids in the cheaper shops. The price of the

brands now-a-days in ridiculous so we shop in places like Home Bargains to get them the brands they want at the prices I want to pay.”But Cheshire Oaks cannot be ignored within this equation. Named the UK’s largest outlet centre, it has a wide range of designer stores at ridiculously low prices, including Kurt Geiger, Coast, Ben Sherman, Nike and Next.Jenny Jones, a former employee of a store in Cheshire Oaks said:

“As much as I love shopping in Ellesmere Port, you cannot beat the bargains at Cheshire Oaks. I’m a handbag addict, so it’s perfect for me.”

Next door to Cheshire Oaks, is The Coliseum; a shopping centre added to the side of a leisure village. This area included a large Boots, Argos and HMV, with the

Every week we will give you a guide to the best of everything in Ellesmere Port

The Begginers guide to

Shopping in Ellesmere Port

Relax: A well deserves rest

Every week we will give you a guide to the best of everything in Ellesmere Port

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Shop ‘til you drop: The Port Arcades

Top Tips

*Ellesmere Port Market has the best food at the best prices for lunch. There is also a courtyard

between all of the eateries, all of whom cater for all tastes.

*Parking in the town centre Ellesmere Port of a weekend is a nightmare. To avoid this, there is

parking in Whitby Park and by the Ellesmere Port Civic Hall, perfect

for a stroll into town.

*After a day of shopping, that is both tiring and stressful, why not relax at some ot the local pubs. The Bunberry Arms, by Cheshire Oaks, has some of the best home

cooked food in the county.

new addition of a large Next taking the place of the former corner lot held by Borders. But along with these shops,

Ellesmere Port boats a very large amount of supermarkets, something that is on the increase with the Marks and Spenser’s store being built on the outskirts of Cheshire Oaks. Apart from the new two –storey 24 hour ASDA right in the centre of town, there is a Morrison’s that has just received

a face-lift and towards the other side of Cheshire Oaks, there is a Sainsbury’s, which like the others, has recently seen an extension and update to their store. The only other large supermarket brand that is missing from this line-up is Tesco, but don’t worry, there are two with a 10- minute walking radius in Little Sutton. But these are the commercial

stores that appear everywhere. There are numerous privately owned stores all over Ellesmere Port that include baby-ware and accessories, many flower stores and various clothing shops, including wedding attire and clothing for schools and dancing. Ethel Jones, who has lived in Ellesmere Port all her life, said: “I have seen that many chops in the town come and go its unbelievable. Some of the ones I spent working for in my youth have gone but I still like the atmosphere down there. Everyone knows the port is the best place to shop.”All in all, Ellesmere Port has a rich and thriving retail sector, with a store that could suit anyone and there are a number of people who come from miles just to shop in this friendly environment.

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ProfiledGetting to know

Mayor Gareth Anderson

What was it like growing up in Ellesmere Port?I moved here from Netherley in Liverpool when I was 4. I was a busy child, usually rehearsing for a show, or doing something with the Cubs and Scouts. What always surprised me though was that a lot of people I went to school with hated living here and, even from a young age, wanted to get out. That rather depressed me because I like living here, but it made me look closely at why people felt like that. It’s a bit shocking that my friends were adamant that they wanted to live somewhere else, even when we

were in Primary school.

What are your fondest memories of Ellesmere Port?It’s probably lunchtimes in the Summer at Meadow Primary School, playing on the field with my friends, or the many times I have been on stage in the Civic Hall, each of which was fun.

Where is better for shopping: Cheshire Oaks or The Port Ar-cades?There is a wider variety of choice in the Arcades, but you can’t beat Cheshire Oaks outlet for savings on clothes, especially suits which I seem to go through at a rate of knots. They get de-stroyed in school somehow!

What were you like as a student in Whitby High School?Being at Whitby was a varying experience. I had to put up with quite a lot of bullying because I was into drama and not foot-ball. However it was also a place where my interests in drama and music, and, later on, politics, could really be brought out. I had some fantastic teachers who I really connected with, though it’s fair to say that I didn’t get on

with all of them, or all my fellow students. I could be quite barbed when in defensive mode as I had to be sometimes. I am still in touch with a good number of very close friends from school, though most of them have indeed left the area…..

What was it like becoming to youngest ever mem-ber of Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough council?It was, and continues to be, a privileged, fun, nasty and frustrat-ing experience. It covers every single gamut of emotion and experience. My own side were

Gareth Anderson has lived in Great Sutton since he was 4 years old and is both a former student of Meadow Primary and Whitby High School. He now teaches at a

school in Wirral.He was the youngest person to

be elected by Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough council in 2002

and at the age of 30 he is the youngest Mayor of the area.

Anderson also has a busy social life performing with a theatre

group at the Ellesmere Port Civic. Here we try to get to know the

Mayor better:

Fun for all:The Ellesmere Port Civic Hall

ProfiledGetting to know

Mayor Gareth Anderson

EP Living - Page 7

absolutely supportive and help-ful and they always pushed me to develop my knowledge and skills. However, there were some members of the council from the opposite side who were, to be absolutely honest, quite vile to me personally. Some behaved in a quite outrageous manner and were, at times, way over the boundary of what people would say is acceptable. And bear in mind, this was very experienced individuals in their 50s, 60s and 70s doing their best to have a go at a newbie in his early 20s. When people have found out some of the things they did, or tried to do, they have been shocked.It is also fair to say that I was surprised quite how immovable, inflexible and painfully slow the council could be in responding to what the public needed and wanted. The oft-heard phrase was “We have always done it like this”, meaning that what was ok in the 1950s must STILL be ok in the 21st Century. That’s the frustrat-ing part.

Where is your favourite place to eat in Ellesmere Port?There was a great restaurant in Little Sutton called Renaissance

which I loved, but it is no lon-ger there sadly. After that I am spoiled for choice, but I have a weakness for Chinese food, so The Eastern Delight in Whitby is a favourite haunt of mine.

What is your favourite pub/bar in Ellesmere Port?I’m teetotal and so I don’t go out drinking, instead I prefer dinner with friends. The restaurants in and around the Coliseum do have an impressive variety of non-alco-holic cocktails though!

What do you see happening in Ellesmere Port’s future?The new council has some VERY ambitious plans for the future of our town. For example I launched the vision for the waterfront a few weeks ago, which will be £billions of private sector invest-ment to bring the heart back to

our riverside. We are taking a broader approach to redevelop-ing our town, and not just fo-cussing on a handful of narrow areas. Everybody deserves a great education, and we ended years of slow progress to get the Academy going, in particular its building plans. We are going to have a new, regionally important leisure centre, new housing and much more involvement from the public in all of these plans than ever before. Ellesmere Port should become the place where 10 year olds WANT to stay and get a great job and live in a nice home, rather than how my friends used to feel.

For more information about • Mayor Gareth Anderson, log onto http://www.garethand-erson.net/

Politician: Mayor Gareth Anderson

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Back To The Future

The National Waterways Museum

Designed by Thomas Telford, who has had a pub named after him in the town centre, is consists of a system of locks, docks and

warehouses. It was still used as a working dock until the 1950’s.

All the locks within the museum are Grade 2 listed, which means they cannot be knocked

down, extended or altered without the permission of the local council. The lighthouse

at the end of the canal and the lock keepers hut are also listed. There is also an extensive

amount of boats on the site including river and canal barges, tug boats and ice breakers.

Back To The Future

The National Waterways Museum

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The Museum was started by a group

of enthusiasts; it has a large collection

of clothing, painted canalware and tools

and, of course, boats. The collected is also designated, which means they are of

national importance

Opened in the 1970’s, throughout its time it has

been called the North West Museum of Inland

Navigation, The Boat Museum and The National

Waterways Museum.

Opinions matter

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

Shoplifters: Making the lives of a

retail worker hell

EP Living - Page 10

bonus. If the item is reserved and we cant find it, the stock level

then has to be adjusted down and we look a profit margin from it. Due to a rippling effect of not

having enough staff to cover the shop floor at all times, that stems

from the profits made by the store, we cannot catch everyone

who happened to take something that isn’t theirs.

This puts s back into the vicious circle.

It makes me angry, especially around Christmas time, when the most items are stolen. Me and my colleagues have to work to raise

enough money to buy gifts for our loves ones and friends, we would never have the audacity to go into

another store and steal some-thing, it’s wired into out nature. So why should these people be

any different to us?Although it is difficult to pin point exactly who steals from the store, there are perceptions, but these must be kept at bay when work-ing within this sort of environ-

ment. We also know that this kind of behaviour will go on long after we have left. Its a nightmare for

the victims of these crimes.I hope these points would be tak-en into consideration before the crime is committed, thus should

be the only thing taken.

TV stolen from us before now, god knows how, its not as if its something that you can merely

slip under your jumper and walk out with.

But its not what thief’s steal that bothers me, it’s the effect it has on the store after they have un-

dertook the offence.When the item is stolen, it has

the most diverse counter effect. If someone comes in and buys

the item that has been stolen, we have to refund it and it goes down on our statistics as an out-of-stock

refund. We are allowed a cour-tesy of about 3 a year of these,

any more and we loose our yearly

I work weekends in retail for a hop that has no security on the doors and no security on the items on

the shop floor, so it shouldn’t sur-prise me that stuff gets stolen all the time, but every time it does, something inside me feels like its

going to burst.Week on we have various items stolen from small toys and sim card packs, to the larger items

such as lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners, but we have had a 42”

Easy: A few of the most stolen items in our store

Review

Holdi Indian Restaurant, Little Sutton

Tasty food, great location and waiters that

are easy on the eye

Delicasey: Holdi, Old Chester Road

We rate this place:

8/10

EP Living - Page 11

The Holdi has been renowned for their Indian takeaways all over Ellesmere Port. So whey they an-nounced they were to open a res-taurant not a stone throw away from their original location, there was a mass amount of excitement from their regular customers. So this warranted a visit.When you enter the restaurant you are greeted with a beautiful and stylish interior design, both clean crisp and inviting. Then the staff, who are rather tasty them-selves, seat you and the excite-ment of coming into the place happens all over again. The menu. Although most similar in parts to the takeaway boasts new dishes with more intricate flavours. Then came the drinks menu. I am a big wine drinker and the choice did not disappoint, neither did the wine itself, compliments to whoever chose the wine. A traditional pre-meal, popadums and various chutneys and sauces were delivered to the table. I personally recommend a base of Mango chutney, topped with Raita and then an onion/cucum-ber with mint finish, messy but

worth it.For this meal, I ordered the Chick-en Chat starter, which came out hot and delicious. For the main, I ordered a Lamb Dupiaza with rice and a Keema Naan to share. One word, wow. The Lamb was tender and well cooked, and the sauce that I am usually not the biggest fan of from the takeaway was devoured. When it came to desert, although I can imagine them to be as tasty as the rest of the food, we had to refuse. Any more food would have caused us to either explode or collapse, a risk we were not willing to take. All in all the meal was fantastic

and was deceivingly filling. The only downside to the meal was when the bill arrived.It was rather dearer than the takeaway, which we expect, but not by that much. As they are just starting out as well there are no special menus like other Indian restaurants in the area. So as a restaurant, the food and service is fantastic, just save this one for a special occasion if you are looking for value for money.

Coming Next month ...

We take a look at the high

street travel agents and the best deals they

can give you last minute!

Graffitti: Artistic or

Vandalism?

All in the May 2011

issue