News Archive 2005

26/11/05 Why not take a rest from the shops?

With all the shopping to do before Christmas why not give it a break on Saturday 26th! Saturday has been designated as Buy Nothing Day. It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life.
The challenge is to try simple living for a day, spend time with family and friends, rather than spend money on them. People make a pact with themselves to take a break from shopping
Buy Nothing Day exposes the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and unfair distribution of wealth.

14/11/2005 No Beer this year

The South Bedfordshire Branch of CAMRA (The Campaign For Real Ale) regrets to announce that there will not be a Luton Beer Festival this November as usual. The High Town Recreation Centre (formerly known as the Drill Hall), their home for the last few years being unavailable due to it's imminent closure for re-development. The branches festival organisers have been unable to secure a suitable alternative venue in the town for this year.

05/11/2005 Fireworks Night!

Don't miss it on Saturday 5th November at Pope's Meadow on the Old Bedford Road! From 6pm there will be children's rides and refreshments and the display starts at 7:30pm!

22/10/2005 Futuristic project gains momentum

Four times the size of the Eden project the proposed facility would be built in the brick pits of Stewartby village north of Luton. The centre would be an important resource for biologists, conservationists as well as being a tourist attraction! The project called NIRAH (National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats) will house fish,reptiles, frogs and even sharks in environmentally controlled bio-domes.

17/10/2005 It must be close to Halloween when..

A mysterious big cat is spotted in Harpenden just 5 miles from Luton. A woman who was walking her dog at the time spotted the beast on Bower Heath Lane! From descriptions it seems that the animal could be a puma. It was also seen in a car park CCTV camera. If it is a puma then who knows it could make its way to Luton as these animals can travel miles in a day!
The Plymouth Big Cat Society have been called in to investigate.
So if you do see a big cat, a really big cat then the British Big Cats Society would love to hear from you!

British Big Cats Society

09/10/2005 Lutonian reaches for the stars!

Interstellar travel, generation starships and an epic journey to a new Earth at a distant star are all subjects covered in a new book by Abdul Ahad. The book is called "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" and is about 3000 people travelling in a massive spaceship in the far future. In the spirit of Arthur C Clarke, Abdul has carefully thought out the scientific principles in depth to make sure that the story as plausible as possible. His ideas on sustainable biomes would make an Eden Project engineer jealous! He also delves into how the travellers cope with the realisation that they are only one generation of 2000 needed to make the journey. How would you feel if your entire life would be spent in deepest space? In fact Abdul even worked out how dark space is - it is known as "Ahad's Constant"!
Abdul was born in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh and has lived in Luton since 1978. Abdul has always been interested in space and even built his own Mars micro rovers which he used to explore his back garden remotely!
Following redundancy last year Abdul started writing the novel which is now available on Amazon and who knows could be the next blockbuster movie one day!

PS: To let you in on a little secret - his image of the ships interior is actually the Wardown Museum front garden!

Explore Abduls imagination on his website here!

19/08/2005 Luton comes second in most sociable places poll!

Flingle - a website uniting social groups all over the UK conducted a survey of where the most sociable places are based on their user activity. Not surprisingly London came out tops but Luton came in second place even beating Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh!
Flingle update their results every day so keep checking their website to see how long we can hold second place!

The most sociable places in the UK

Flingle website - uniting social groups all over the UK!

11/07/2005 Tribal Gathering cancelled

Sadly as a repercussion of the terrorist attack in London the Tribal gathering festival to be held at Luton Hoo has been cancelled. In aid of Sudan the event was to be a highlight of the year at Luton and a landmark charity event.

24/06/2005 A taste of Africa - on your doorstep

If you wanted to go on safari you could catch a plane to Africa but with the weather being so hot these last few days why not visit the Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. The park is located just a few miles out of Luton on the outskirts of Dunstable!
Amongst the African "Big Five" (Lions, Leopards, Rhino, Elephants and Buffalo ) there are many other fascinating animals to see including Sea Lions, Hippos, Giraffes, Penguins, Cheetah, Leopards, Ostriches, Camel, Pink Flamingos and strange rabbit like creatures roaming the grounds.

Visit their website for more information

31/05/2005 Dazzling colours as Luton celebrates its 30th Carnival

Over 150000 people attended the 30th Luton Carnival on bank holiday Monday! Luton Carnival is the biggest one day event of its kind in Europe eclipsed only by the Notting Hill Carnival which is a three day event. The precessions were fantastic as dazzling costumes glittered in the sunlight and you could appreciated the amazing effort that was put into making them! There were six sound stages located around the town centre with Chiltern FM taking centre stage at Market Hill. The procession started at about 2pm and each float had a chance to climb the ramp and show their stuff. Some of the amazing displays were a gigantic furry lion, antique bicycles, a huge parrot, a tall fireman and a London bus on a "summer holiday".

See the gallery here!

05/03/2005 Sarfraz Manzoor tells of his Luton experience

Don't miss the show tonight (Sat March 5th) on BBC 2 from 9:15 starting with "Paki and Proud", followed by Sarfraz Manzoor's "Luton Actually" at 9:50, then at 10:25 "Atta Boy" and finally at 10:45 "Who Wants To Be A Mullah?"

On March 5th, BBC 2 are to show a special night of programs looking at the lives of British Pakistanis. The programs are "slices of life" giving an insight into the experiences of Pakistanis living in Britain.
One of the programs to be screened is called "Luton Actually" which is written and presented by Sarfraz Manzoor who arrived in the town in Spring 1974. The film meets his family and friends to find out what it was like to grow up as a Pakistani Brit in Luton.
A free preview of the documentary will be shown on 22nd February at 8pm at the Hat Factory prior to its nationwide BBC screening.
Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer, broadcaster, film maker and columnist for The Guardian. He has directed television shows such as "The Great British Asian Invasion" and "Death of a Porn Star" and documentaries for Radio 4.