Martha's Kitchen

14/10/2026

Martha's Kitchen will be here on Saturday 17th October!

11/10/2026

SETTLE ARTISAN MARKET TODAY 11.10.26 until 3.30pm. The sun's shining, the wind's dropped, so we're all happy 😀

10/10/2026

Chevin Craft Fair at Christchurch Ilkley TODAY 10.10.26 until 3pm. Come on over 😉

10/10/2026

Puffins are the “clown birds” of the North Atlantic. Thousands of bird lovers flock to the rough cliffs of England, Ireland and Iceland to admire these charismatic birds with their colorful beaks.But

09/10/2026

Sadly, the Artisan Market at Haworth Artisan Market tomorrow 10.10.26 has been cancelled due to the high winds forecast. Instead, Martha's Kitchen will be doing the Chevin Craft Fair at Christchurch, Ilkley. Hope to see people there!

08/10/2026

Big Tech’s giant data centres swallow as much power as millions of homes, guzzle our water, and risk driving up our energy bills - all with zero limits. We need basic rules: ⚡ 100% clean power 💧 Zero water waste 🗣️ Giving communities a say before anything gets built I’ve just signed Fo...

03/10/2026

Clitheroe United Reformed Church - URC TODAY 3.10.26 until 3pm.

02/10/2026

Oil and gas companies who make BILLIONS are trying to get out of paying tax while we all freeze this winter.

29/09/2026

This.

There's a 20,000 square foot empty shop in the middle of Chester. In a country that's apparently run out of places to build.

Every high street plan I've ever read has the same answer for that unit. Find another retailer. Cut the rates a bit. Run a Christmas market and hope.

And look, rates relief isn't nothing. Trading on a British high street is genuinely brutal and anything that lowers the cost of it helps. I'd take it.

But it's tinkering with the symptom. That unit isn't empty because the rates are too high. It's empty because nothing needs 20,000 square feet of shop floor anymore, and no amount of relief brings back a format the world stopped using.

The footfall isn't coming back either, not from people who drive in. You cannot have footfall without feet, and you cannot have feet without residents. Every high street strategy of the last twenty years has chased the first thing while ignoring the second.

So use the building for what it's actually good for.

Ground floor stays commercial, but anchored deliberately, not left to whatever turns up. A trades training academy in the middle of town, teaching the plumbing and electrical skills we're desperately short of, with live sites within walking distance. A health space.

Something the town genuinely needs and can walk to.

Then everything above it becomes homes.
Specifically for the people this country has quietly stopped building anything for. The 21 year old leaving home for the first time. The apprentice. The care leaver. The first proper job on a normal wage.

We didn't just fail to build enough houses, we failed to build an entire category of housing, and then acted surprised when nobody could leave home.

We are not short of buildings. We're short of permission and we're short of a reason for anyone to take the risk.

That's what Points 4 and 5 of my Build Britain better manifesto exist to fix, and it's the fight I've picked with the National Regeneration Guarantee, because the buildings are already standing there.

The roads are in. The schools are in. The bus routes are in.

The infrastructure for the housing crisis was built forty years ago. We've just got a shop in it.

I spoke for an hour about this with Vicki Wusche on her podcast, the link to the full Youtube version is in the comments: