Graham Westley will be looking for a big performance from his PNE side when they take on Brentford at Deepdale on Saturday.

The Lilywhites have won just once in their last seven league outings and fell to a 2-1 defeat at Yeovil Town last Saturday. Even more worryingly, North End have registered just one win in their last 11 home matches in all competitions.

Westley was in the stands for the 3-2 win against Wycombe three weeks ago but he has managed just a solitary point in three games since officially taking charge.

It has been a busy January transfer window with seven new arrivals at Deepdale and with centre-back Craig Morgan suspended following his red card at Huish Park, new signing Chris Robertson could be thrust straight into action after joining from Torquay United.

Striker Graham Cummins has joined from Cork City and could play some part, with Rhys Murphy another option in attack. The latter has signed on loan from Arsenal until the end of the season and could feature against Brentford, for whom he had a loan spell in 2009-2010.

Westley has set about revamping his PNE squad as he aims to build for the future and his no-nonsense approach has seen Ian Ashbee, 35, and Clarke Carlisle, 32, depart this week. The former has left the club after his contract was settled up, while Carlisle, who scored at the weekend, has had his season-long loan spell terminated.

Paul Coutts has also been stripped of the North End captaincy; Westley unhappy with the midfielder’s attitude since he took the reins at Deepdale last month. The 23-year-old is suspended for two matches having picked up his 10^th yellow card of the season at Yeovil.

Andy Procter & Adam Barton are both doubtful for the visit of the Bees, who will be on a high after their 5-2 win against Wycombe last weekend.

Gary Alexander netted a hat-trick at Griffin Park and he has been in fine goal-scoring form lately with five in his last two matches.

It was the Hounslow club’s first win in eight matches and keeps them within five points of the play-off places.

Uwe Rösler could hand a debut to former QPR striker Antonio German who has penned an 18-month deal but Karleigh Osborne is still struggling with a foot injury and Kevin O’Connor will definitely miss out.

It is a difficult match to call with PNE winning only one of their last 11 home matches in all competitions while the visitors have only tasted victory once in their last nine on their travels.

North End currently lie four points and six places adrift of Brentford but nothing less than three points will do for Westley’s men who still harbour hopes of an unlikely play-off push.

A top notch display from Men’s Badminton 1sts ensured they breezed through to the quarter finals of the Northern Conference Cup following their 8-0 whitewash victory over Manchester 3^rds.

Manchester 3rds were positioned only one point behind UCLan in the league standings coming into the game, so it was expected to be a much closer encounter.

Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was the opening doubles match in which Bruce Johnson and Dave Garnett partnered up to win in straight sets after a fantastic comeback from the pair.

Both sets were nail-bitingly close as the home partnership clawed back a number of times when it seemed all was lost to take the first set 25-23 and the second 28-26.

The second doubles match was once again very close with Manchester taking the first set 19-21, only for UCLan pairing Ben Dobbs and James Pickard to take the two following sets 21-18 and 21-17.

Graham Hollingsworth featured in the first singles game which he took in straight sets 21-19 and 21-14 – covering the court well.

The following singles encounter saw Matty Timms win the first set with ease 21-10, however his opponent turned up the heat in the second, which eventually Timms won 22-20 with an impressive comeback after it looked like the match would go the distance.

Doubles pair Garnett and Johnson then secured UCLan’s victory, despite going down in the first set 19-21 they fought back with some superb play to take the following sets 21-17 and 21-14.

Hollingsworth followed in similar fashion to his previous encounter, taking the game in two straight sets. This time however, the contest was much more even and may have gone the other way if it wasn’t for the hard work and determination from the UCLan performer.

Dobbs and Pickard made light work of their second match of the afternoon with a straight sets victory of 21-14 and 21-13 which showed their capabilities as a doubles pair.

The final match typified the team performance for UCLan as Timms put in a gutsy performance, using up every ounce of energy he had in him. He went down 14-21 in the first set before bouncing back – taking the remaining sets 21-15 and 21-16, to seal a huge victory for UCLan.

“Today went really well” said UCLan Captain, James Pickard.

“It’s one of the last rounds of the cup, so I’m really happy with the performance”, he added.

UCLan will now have two weeks off before they face Manchester 3rds once again, this time in the league away from home. Meanwhile they could face fellow team-mates UCLan 2nds in the next round of the cup depending on other results.

UCLan Team:

Doubles- Bruce Johnson & Dave Garnett

Doubles- Ben Dobbs & James Pickard

Singles- Graham Hollingsworth, Matty Timms

The group of students aimed to raise awareness of the upcoming sporting week in March, that coincides with the Games and Guild event.

The week of events will begin on Friday 27 February, and will include a ‘mix of able bodied and disabled sport’.

Events will include Wii games, wheelchair basketball, parkour and ‘don’t drop the ball’ table tennis.

Organiser of the flash mob, Ben Latham, a third year Outdoor Leadership student, explains what he hoped to achieve with today’s flash mob:

Participants are needed for the event, and you can register your interest by emailing SUClubsandsocs@uclan.ac.uk or by phoning 01772 894 860. You can also visit UCLan Students’ Union Activities for more information.

The fire rages in the disused church

Twelve UCLan students have been evacuated from their accommodation on Moor Lane, following a huge fire which began last night in the neighbouring disused Spiritualist church.

The Ethical Spiritualist Church, on Moor Lane, close to the Adelphi pub, had been burning from before midnight.

The fire brigade are thought to have been called at 11:01 pm, and the fire is being treated as suspicious.

A tweet by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The fire investigation at the Old Spiritual Church is still ongoing, however, at this moment in time we are treating it as suspicious.”

Up to seven fire engines and 40 firefighters attended the fire, along with several police officers, all who were unable to comment at the time.

Smoke from the fire hung across the city, and was visible from neighbouring student accommodation.

Mikki Wright, a first year TV production student, was an eye-witness. She said: “I live in IQ Kopa and looked out of my window to see loads of smoke, so I called in my flat mates and we could see flames and decided to go outside and see what had happened.

“We saw the roof had completely gone, then went and watched at the front where there were around eight fire engines, a few ambulances and a few police cars including an unmarked police car.

“The fire was huge and the smoke was covering us and there were huge sparks of fire flying around above us.”

It is thought that the students who had been evacuated are still not able to return yet. A statement from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) said:

“The students were given emergency university accommodation overnight. We are continuing to offer support to those who were affected by this incident.”

The cause of the fire is yet to be explained.

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “Nobody is allowed in at this stage until an assessor has declared the building as safe.

“Around 30 people were evacuated, mostly students.”

Photos and video below show the extent of the fire, but it is thought that neighbouring buildings are unharmed.

In a statement on their website, Lancashire Fire and Rescue’s Incident Commander Tony Crook said: “The firefighters did an excellent job using the resources they had to stop the fire from spreading to any other building.

“The residents who were evacuated will be allowed to go back in to their homes once a structural engineer has declared the building safe. The cause of the fire is not yet known, however, we are working with Lancashire Police to determine the cause.”

Words and video by Hannah Breeze, photographs in slideshow by Dave Stubbings. Other photo by Alex Pamphilon.

Nominations for the UCLan Students’ Union election season open today.

The nomination peroid will be open for one month, until March 5.

Students can run for one of five Student Affairs Committee (SAC) roles; President, Education Officer, Media Officer, Campaigns Officer or Activities and Participation Officer, or for a place on the Student Council.

This year’s current SAC, explain why they think it is important to run for their respective roles.

You can view the full election timetable here.

Pluto, PSTV and Frequency Radio will be bringing you all the latest on the Students’ Union Elections as they happen, with live-coverage of results and question-time events, as well as interviews, videos, photos and more.

Words and video by Hannah Breeze

Students are finding their cars have been attacked. Photo: Alfred Hermida (Flickr)

Student cars have been targeted in the Plungington area of Preston.

Last year, numerous reports were made of cars being broken into; especially students parking on Greenbank Street, Murray Street, Gordon Street, Ashmoor Street and Hawkins Street.

None of these areas had overlooking houses, industrial buildings, lighting and or CCTV.

Since the start of the New Year, two vehicles have been broken into that were parked on Hawkins Street.

In all but one case, the cars targeted have been student owned.

“The noise in Preston makes you nervous to move your car – today I walked out of my house and there were eggs on the windows and with a number of teenagers living in the area, it does make me nervous to leave it,” said Wildman Street resident, Anneka Nicholl.

Lancashire Police’s Jennifer Coupe says the issue with student vehicles centres around students leaving cars for a long period of time with many leaving cars up to a week, meaning it is very difficult to narrow down frames of when the offences are occurring.

With the UCLan campus only ten minutes away from many student homes, students are not using their cars; making it a lot easier for break-ins to take place.

“The vehicles are being targeted by smashing the windows and therefore the offender would reach in and steal property,” said PC Coupe.

The officer has issued advice for all students with cars in the Preston area and has explained that students should “continually check upon their vehicles when not using them.”

“Also by taking all property out of the vehicle would hopefully deter the offender form targeting the vehicle,” she added.

“We appreciate that parking is difficult however we would advice that whenever possible vehicles are left in a well lit area.”

With the aim of showing people that “there is actually a greater chance for things to get better”, the video interviews UCLan students showing “real people with real stories with real proof that life does get better; it gets good”.

The video is in aid of Diversity Role Models; an organisation devoted to promoting LGBT role models in schools.

Louise Courtney, who has been described as “the driving force behind the video”, said she wanted to “represent each ‘type’ of being gay; hopefully meaning that whoever was watching would be able to relate to at least one person in the video”.

The video acts as a source of hope for those that have been affected and the society has said that everyone involved was “obviously passionate about this video; both for its meaning and the support we hoped it would give”.

“We kept fighting to make it,” she added, after explaining a number of difficulties they had encountered whilst producing the video.

Second Year student, Louise Courtney explains that she “wanted to show people who’ve come out or are worried about coming out that it’s not always bad coming out.”

“People can surprise you, but even if they don’t and they react bad, you still have friends and people to talk to, and even failing that there is a support network out there, of people like us, who will make it better for you, and make you smile”, she added.

“Everyone worked extremely hard,” said LGBT Chair, Alex Re.

The video was premiered at the LGBT Charity Christmas Ball and can be currently viewed on YouTube.

The society is extremely pleased with the results and hopes everyone shares the successful outcome of the “It Gets Better” video.

Scenes like this will be repeated less often at 53 Degrees

Regular Thursday clubnights at 53 Degrees are a thing of the past following the end Vodka Nationwide’s involvement with the venue.

The decision came following a semester of the events which replaced the Students’ Union’s (SU) event, Promo, which ceased in May 2011.

However poor attendances has seen weekly clubnights been pulled from the 53 Degrees schedule.

Organisers, Taking Liberties, is responsible for the Vodka Nationwide brand.

Managing Director of Taking Liberties, Jim Albentosa said: “After some great initial parties over Fresher’s week the attendance numbers dropped in favour of the established events at Squires and Lava.

“As neither party (Taking Liberties and 53 Degrees) was profiting from the event, we mutually decided to stop.

“The students at UCLan certainly know how to party so I’m sure we’ll be back in Preston for some more events soon.”

SU President, Reni Eddo-Lodge said the end of the arrangement mirrored a national trend.

“It protected the Union from the financial risk of running a Thursday club night in the current recession which has seen a national decline in nightclub and university event attendances.

“Often it is difficult to foresee what may or may not happen with an event, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to gage the desires of students, in an ever changing economic climate.”

“We believe that the problems associated with the weekly student club night as 53 Degrees are a lot more complex than just the event itself.

“On debriefing with Vodka Nationwide they felt that the key reasons for the closure of the event were: heavy drink discounting in the city centre bars had been a major issue, lack of feeder bars supporting 53 Degrees, less students going out less frequently and the growing trend of students wanting fewer bigger events.”

The SU is currently undertaking a survey to find out what students want from 53 Degrees.

However the venue will still be hosting irregular clubnights with other outside promoters throughout the rest of the academic year.

53 degrees is looking past the disappointment of Vodka Nationwide and is currently preparing to welcome one of the UK’s biggest parties this July; The Great Games Party of the UK Corporate Games.

(Audio by Hannah Breeze)

The Harun Yahya organisation, based in Turkey, has delivered over 3500 conferences worldwide and has published more than 300 books.

The lectures on ‘today’s science and evolution theory’ and the ‘miracles of the Qur’an’ are catered to appeal to Musilms and non Musilms alike and seek to explain the connections between religion and evolution theory.

Turkish based Dr. Ahmet Oktar Babuna, a neurosurgeon based in Istanbul and Dr. Turgut Asku of Ankara are set to speak to students at the conference.

Mohammed Patel, chair of UCLan’s Islamic Society said: “The Islamic Society is humbled to host such a prestigious organisation and I hope that UCLan will be honoured in hosting them.

“The two doctors who will be speaking are highly qualified and experienced in this field and the organisation is seen to be leading the debate in this area of research.

“The topics have been chosen as they aim to attract the Non-Muslim audience primarily and also the Muslims.

“In this era of much controversy surrounding the Evolution Theory and the teachings of the Glorious Qur’an, we endeavour to grant people the true understanding of the stance of Islam on the Theory and the miracles engrained within of the Qur’an from a scientific perspective.

“The fossil exhibition will also add a special touch to the event as it has been accepted worldwide.”

The conference is free to attend and will be held on Friday 3 February, between 4pm and 6pm in Greenbank Lecture Theatre.