As the year draws to a close we’ve been taking a look back through what we’ve been doing this year.

Blog Preston is a Community Interest Company and we seek to report on what’s happening in the city.

Sometimes this involves asking difficult questions, other times it is celebrating and shinning a spotlight on people doing fantastic things.

We’ve taken a look through when our journalism made a difference in the city in the past 12 months.

Preston Guild Hall

The future of the city’s main venue has been a constant talking point for years, during this year we’ve revealed it was confirmed to have the crumbly concrete known as RAAC within its roof, drilled into how much the building standing empty has cost the city council. It was also a big talking point in our sit-down interview with council leader Matthew Brown earlier this year.

And we haven’t stopped asking questions about the future of the main venues.

Supporting those putting on events in the city

During the summer we relaunched our what’s on section to better showcase all the events happening in and around Preston we’re covering.

Our co-editor Kate Rosindale does a fantastic job on keeping people up to date on what’s happening in the city’s arts, culture and what’s on scene.

Thanks to lots of organisations and people in the city helping us unlock funding from the Lancashire Cultural Fund we’ve been able to publish more than 250 additional stories about the city’s events, arts and culture.

There’s still plenty more which needs to be done to build on what’s happening in Preston’s arts scene, and we hope to continue to support that.

Local and general elections

Covering what’s happening in the Town Hall and local politics is an important part of ensuring there’s accountability.

None more so than when elections take place. We were in the Guild Hall foyer for the local election count (during a Friday daytime) and in overnight for the general election too.

In the run up to the general election we worked with The Lancashire Post and The Lancashire Lead to organise general election hustings in Preston and South Ribble. More than 200 people got the chance to hear directly from those seeking to be their MP and had the chance to put their questions to them on the issues which mattered to them.

We were also granted a rare opportunity to interview local multi-millionaire Yousuf Bhailok who unsuccessfully stood for election.

Since the election we’ve also interviewed Sir Mark Hendrick – putting a range of issues to him which you helped to suggest.

Launching a podcast for the city

We launched the Parched Pea Podcast in collaboration with The Lancashire Post and it was a return to broadcasting for Preston legend John Gillmore too.

Supported by two journalism students from the University of Central Lancashire then Gilly sat down with a number of Prestonians to tell their stories.

We’ve now had thousands of listens to the first series of the podcast and it had a lovely reaction and reception too. We’re working on a second series to return in Spring next year.

Exposed terrible living conditions

We featured where Donna Monkhouse was living. It was nothing other than horrendous.

Despite numerous attempts for it to be resolved it was, sadly, only after we started asking questions then activity magically began.

Donna was, a month later, in a much better place. She said at the time: “I want to thank Blog Preston for all their help with this situation. I think I’d still be asking for leaks to be repaired in the old property if I hadn’t spoken to them. 

“They were very compassionate in dealing with my concerns and asking questions.

“Everyone needs to be treated properly and if you’re a tenant somewhere you deserve a warm, dry house.”

It shouldn’t take us asking, but where there is clearly a need to do better then we will ask those questions of authorities, organisations and those with the power and resources to make things right.

We’ve also continued to cover the Fishwick home insulation scandal too – with hundreds of homes still to be repaired.

Corporation Street bus gate farce

We do find it quite staggering people are still getting fined for using the new bus gate – despite how many stories we’ve written about it.

During its early weeks of operation we exposed how bus firms were turning their own services away from it due to traffic and traffic light syncing issues and how the county council had to literally send staff members to act as a physical gate to enforce it.

BBC Radio 2 In The Park – and a broken leg

We braved the mud, with everyone else, on the Sunday and the weekend is currently the single largest audience we’ve ever had on Blog Preston. Thank you to everyone who followed our updates.

We were the first to report on the potential for a festival in Moor Park, revealed the resident permits zone being put in place and much more.

And, when disaster struck for Karen on the eve of the festival then after a phone call the council and BBC leapt into action.

Karen said at the time: “Thanks to Blog Preston I received a phone call and the organisers sorted a taxi to get us right to the site, and then we’ve had a wheelchair and been able to sit in the viewing area in the accessibility stand.

“They let me bring a friend with me as well. It’s just been the most amazing experience.

“The festival is so well set up for people who do have a disability or like me have something which means they are physically less-able at the moment.”

In defence of hospitality

The challenges faced by the hospitality sector are well-documented. We report on enough closures in Preston and the wider area to know that’s the case.

And sometimes these businesses can be targeted by people who, to phrase it politely, don’t have their best interests at heart.

In February, the Beer Box is Bamber Bridge was slapped with a bill for the sale of the business in 2022 by brokers who had advertised the business as for sale. At best, this was in very bad faith, at they didn’t actually facilitate the sale. Instead, owner Mark Bentham would wind up buying out his partner.

When approached by Blog Preston, the business backed down and waived the fees.

Mark, owner of Beer Box, said this week: “I just want to say thank you to Luke and the Blog Preston team, without their help my business would no longer exist.

“I was nearly caught in a nasty loop hole which would have set me back around £3500 but thankfully Luke was able to contact the company in question and get the fees quashed.”

And we spent much of the summer investigating efforts by an American fast food chain with hundreds of restaurants to ‘bully’ independents into submission via very zealous legal threats. The letters from Smashburger’s legal representatives to Smashed ultimately resulted in a lot of distress, the rebranding of a business and a new site entirely in the city.

But ultimately, after our reporting on the issue, those legal threats were dropped.

City’s regeneration and empty buildings

Before the two huge fires which ripped through Church Street and St Joseph’s Orphanage in November we’d been consistently asking questions about the city’s growing number of empty buildings.

From the future of Lanson House, to ideas for the former Canal Basin, to St Joseph’s becoming so dangerous even firefighters can’t enter it – we will continue to provide consistent reporting about what’s taking place in the city’s buildings.

We also delved into what’s happening five years since the Stoneygate Masterplan was unveiled. It’s important ‘shiny’ announcements can’t just be made and then walked away from.

It’s not just about empty buildings either, we’ve covered extensively many of the new projects going up in and around the city too – from the Animate cinema to the Foxton’s new base and the city’s Youth Zone.

A place for ‘Proud Preston’

News can often feel very doom and gloom. Each day we usually have something which puts the spotlight on someone doing good in the city.

This can be someone’s charity efforts, someone who has won an award and plenty more besides.

Our Proud Preston section is there to ensure we are able to celebrate people who go above and beyond in the city.

We often feature people who are undertaking activities in support of the city’s hospital and associated charities.

Dan Hill, head of charities for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are very grateful to Blog Preston for the support it gives us by featuring stories on our wonderful fundraisers on it’s very well read news website. It means such a lot to those who often go to quite extreme lengths to help us – people from our local community, who champion Rosemere Cancer Foundation, Baby Beat and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity.

“They put in so much work to run marathons, take on other physical challenges and organise events. People forgo gifts for really special occasions such as their wedding or big birthday to help us fundraise or totally alter their appearance by braving the shave. Telling Blog Preston about what they have done for us is our way of letting as many people as possible know how indebted, humbled and proud we are to work alongside this great bunch. It’s our way of shouting thank you from the roof tops!”

Being a partner

We don’t just operate in isolation, we are a part of the city.

From organising InstaMeets, to being a member of the Preston Partnership, to our link-up with the PR Pointer magazines and PNE fanzine The Nose Bag there’s lots of people and organisations we work with.

And we finished the year with a great example of this, as we helped Cotton Court and Barnardo’s to one of their largest ever collection totals of presents for children and young people to unwrap on Christmas Day.

Expanding our voices

While you’ll often see my byline, Luke’s and Kate’s, we also have a fantastic range of writers who pen pieces for us.

From the experienced journalistic hands of Jamie Lopez, Lisa Brown and Ben Briggs, to the upcoming talent of Sophie Swain, Charlotte Everett, Alice Jones, Ellie Browning and Safia Nawaz to the foodie reviewing wit and talents of Karen Gormley and Louise Gooch.

We always have been, and always will be, a place for people to learn their trade in journalism. We had a fantastic two-day pop-up newsroom at the University of Central Lancashire in March with a number of journalism students working directly with us. We’re going to be doing this again in January 2025.

Our 15th year

This year, our 15th of existing, we decided not to throw some kind of glitzy party but to really focus on ensuring we’re covering as many stories as we can in the city and being a part of it.

We know there’s frustration about adverts which are on the site, and we hear you, but Blog Preston can’t exist on fumes – we all have bills to pay.

However, we will be undertaking a re-design of the website in the coming months and one of the new features will be the ability to support what we do with a small monthly payment and one of the things you get in return is an ad-free experience when using the site. We feel that’s a fair trade. None of us do Blog Preston as a full-time job, we all have other ventures, jobs or commitments. The money made goes back into ensuring there’s more community reporting on the city.

In the meantime if you want to show your appreciate for what we do and support us with a monetary contribution, you can use the BuyMeACoffee option. Thanks to everyone who supports us in many different ways each year.

Our stories will always remain free to view and access. We think it’s important there’s a widely-read and free-to-access news and information source focused predominantly on and in the city.

And that was probably never more important than during the unrest seen following the terrible attacks in Southport in the summer. While tensions simmered Preston was ultimately a peaceful place. The circulation of well-researched, factual and in-depth local journalism is an important part of ensuring the cohesion and stability of the city.

Our stories with the most-impact

These are the twenty stories which had the most impact with our readers, so not just the most-read ones, these are the stories which people spent time reading, liked to share or comment on, and were widely read too.

1. Meeting the multi-millionaire Yousuf Bhailok who wants to be Preston’s next MP
2. Corporation Street bus gate branded ‘absolute farce’ and ‘should be reversed’
3. Preston City Council fire back over Yousuf Bhailok’s city regeneration criticism
4. Police prepared for potential disorder amid rumours of far-right protest in Preston
5. ‘Bully boy tactics’ leave popular Preston burger restaurant just the latest to be smashed out
6. Preston Bus in latest routes shake-up with some services axed and new ones created
7. Yousuf Bhailok claims he tried to buy Preston Guild Hall for £1m
8. Preston City Council local elections 2024 rolling results updates
9. Review: A cheese pie and a premature goodbye at this Longridge pub and restaurant
10. Masjid-e-Salaam in Fulwood given permission to broadcast traditional call to prayer for Eid festivals
11. Revealed: The cost of Preston Guild Hall standing empty and the path to re-opening
12. Corporation Street bus gate is now literally a gate
13. Maps show exact new sites for new Preston and Lancaster hospitals
14. Peter Marquis and his firm caught breaching environmental rules over waste
15. 5am lock-ins, drug accusations and a man unconscious in an alley put Tulketh Tap on brink of losing licence
16. Alleged ‘rundown’ state of Preston city centre blamed on car policies and cost-of-living crisis
17. Review: Eastern Charm – order authentic at the new restaurant that went viral
18. Preston City Council local elections 2024: Updates, results and reaction
19. Preston Bus plan major evening cutbacks to four services
20. Opinion: Preston’s cultural challenge and the opportunity after BBC Radio 2 In The Park

Many thanks to everyone for reading this year, Blog Preston has been viewed more than 8million times in 2024 – our strongest year for views since 2020 – and we really appreciate all the stories, tip-offs, feedback, comments and more we receive.

All the best to you, your families and all in 2025.