The Northerner: Year of Turing
Welcome to the Northerner, guardian.co.uk's weekly digest of the best of the northern press
Alan Turing, the Manchester computer pioneer, will be celebrated in his home city 100 years after his birth.
Largely ignored by the establishment during his lifetime he was persecuted for being gay and prosecuted for having a relationship with a man there will be a year of celebrations marking the centenary of Turing's birth.
The Manchester Evening News reports that scientists, computer programmers and even runners will play their part in the tribute.
Turing led efforts to decode German U-boat communications and went on to lay the foundations of modern computing.
He made many of his greatest discoveries while working at Manchester University after the war and became known as the father of computer science. The scientist, born in 1912, developed early computer software and made huge leaps in artificial intelligence.
After having to endure humiliating hormone treatment, he took his life at his home in Wilmslow in 1954, aged 41.
The year of celebration is the idea of maths professor Barry Cooper, who has helped plan lectures, prizes and events around the country.
Other organisers include Manchester University professor Steve Furber, creator of the BBC Micro computer, and Turing's nephew Sir John Dermot Turing.
Events celebrating Turing's achievements will be staged next year as far away as Brazil and China, as well as Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, home to Britain's wartime codebreakers.
Runners in Cambridge will travel trails and footpaths used by Alan Turing as a student for an inaugural race in his memory.
In Manchester exhibitions, children's activities and public lectures will take place at Manchester University, the Museum of Science and Industry, and other venues.
The key event will be a three-day conference on 22-25 June at Manchester town hall, w! here pro grammers and mathematicians will talk about Turing's work in computing and codebreaking.
Mike Amesbury, Manchester council's culture spokesman, said: "It's only fitting that Manchester should play a key role in celebrating his considerable achievements and legacy." For more details, see the website.
********************
Good news from Wirral as Liam Murphy reports in the Daily Post.
Campaigners are celebrating the reopening of a historic church.
St Peter and Paul's, in New Brighton, was shut in August 2008, despite a huge campaign by churchgoers to save it. The church was known as the "Dome of Home" because of its prominent position providing a landmark for sailors on their way into Liverpool Bay.
On Friday 4 March there will be the first celebration of holy mass at the catholic church since it was closed.
Frank McGowan, of the campaign group Soul (Save Our Unique Landmark), said he was "hopeful about the church in the long term".
He said: "We have a foot in the door now with this mass. Rome has told us that it has virtually never happened in the Western world before for a church that was closed to be reopened.
"It's quite an amazing thing Soul has achieved, it's a unique occasion, and much of it down to the hard work of Cath Nelson and Bill Iveson."
The diocese said the church was too large for the congregation and too expensive to keep operating.
This was disputed by those opposed to the closure. Since then, the efforts to see the church reopened have continued, with a legal case taken to the Vatican and a tireless campaign by Soul.
Local councillor Tony Pritchard paid tribute to "Soul and the thousands of other people who supported this campaign", and added that he and Cllr Paul ! Hayes, w ho has also backed the campaign, are to meet the bishop soon "to explore ways of bringing the church back into full use".
A spokesman for the diocese of Shrewsbury said following the decree to merge the parishes of Ss Peter and Paul and English Martyrs in Wallasey Village, Fr Philip Moor will be inducted as priest for the new parish of the Holy Apostles and Martyrs.
He said: "The dioceses can also confirm that one weekday mass each week will be celebrated in the Day Chapel in Ss Peter and Paul's, beginning Friday 4 March. This is solely on the personal initiative of the Rt Rev Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury."
He said the bishop was in discussions with English Heritage and the church Patrimony Committee and "exploring the possibility of a community of priests establishing a foundation at Ss Peter and Paul's".
********************
The Yorkshire Post reports that new measures are being introduced in rural communities to halt the decline in villages in North Yorkshire being stripped of their community buildings.
Rural communities across the national park are becoming increasingly unsustainable as buildings such as village halls, schools, shops and pubs struggle to survive in the face of the declining levels of people living in the countryside.
Strict planning rules were imposed by the North York Moors National Park Authority a decade ago to safeguard the fabric of village life and prevent the decline in community buildings.
But with the problem continuing to get worse, new detailed guidelines are being issued to highlight the stringent rules in place over converting former businesses into homes and to try to protect communities and put a stop to the decline.
National park authority chiefs have claimed the new guidelines, which are set to be agreed at a planning meeting, are also! intende d to clamp down on people who take over a rural business only deliberately to make it unsustainable so they can sell it off for residential use.
"People really are concerned when the last village pub or shop closes and they want the planning authority to do something about it," said Chris France, the director of planning at the park authority.
"That is absolutely reflected across the North York Moors and is exacerbated in deeply rural areas.
He said it was apparent that pubs and shops were really struggling and the problem was getting more acute.
Under the new measures applicants who wish to convert a building to residential use will need to supply trading accounts over the past five years to demonstrate that it is no longer viable, as well as give detailed reasons why it is no longer usable for community or commercial re-use.
For proposals to change the use of community buildings such as churches and schools, applicants will need to submit information on why the business is surplus to requirements and details on alternative facilities in the area.
Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby, has welcomed the new guidelines.
Last year an investigation into the housing problem in rural England by the Commission for Rural Communities, the Countryside Alliance, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the National Housing Federation highlighted hundreds of village shops, pubs, bus services, village halls and post offices shutting down every year due to a lack of affordable homes.
********************
Councillors in Wirral became embroiled in an extraordinary public row conducted via Twitter, which has since been resolved. (via Twitter).
Chris Blakeley and fellow Conservative Sue Taylor had the spat after Blakeley tweeted "bollocks" in response to Taylor's claim she had been discussing the budget a! t Wallas ey town hall since 9am.
He had also accused her of being "slipshod and unprofessional" over the way she chaired a licensing committee. The two councillors, members of a ruling coalition with the Liberal Democrats, fell out after a meeting at Wallasey town hall.
Taylor tweeted: "Got to the Town Hall before 9am this morning and I am still here. Gruelling day on licensing and next a budget meeting at 9pm. Hurrah!"
Blakeley, who is also the agent for Wirral West MP Esther McVey, replied: "bollocks what time did u get to the town hall?"
Taylor wrote: "bollocks what? I got to Town Hall this morning at 8.50am why?"
To which Blakeley replied: "9:40 more like."
The extraordinary public row continued, as Taylor protested: "Not sure how I was at my 9am briefing then "
Blakeley said: "neither am I then when you said you had to wait at home for extra info to be faxed to you?"
He followed that with another message saying: "and if you were at a 9am briefing why were u not in the committee room for the designated 9:30 start?"
And then another one shortly after, which said: "the fact is that as chairman you were late for committee that is slipshod and unprofessional as well as wasting peoples time."
And another, apparently in response to Taylor's assertion that she was at the Town Hall for 9am: "well why didn't you say that this morning? The hearing was timed for 9:30 as far as I am concerned that means 9:30?"
Blakeley has since Tweeted: "Delighted councillor Sue Taylor has accepted his apology and is happy with the action she is taking to improve licensing procedures." Which is good news, all round.
Comments