It’s Mannin Line with Andy Wint - Monday 2nd March 2026

March 2, 2026·53 min·4 clips

A split planning committee approves a 12-storey tower with cinema and apartments on the derelict Lord Street bus station site.

Well, Lord Street is where it starts. Andy Wint begins with the approved 12-storey redevelopment for the Lord Street bus station site, then gets straight to the awkward bit: what happens now? The vote was tight. The planning committee split three for and three against, so Rob Callister, MHK, cast the deciding vote in favour. That is not just paperwork for callers. Andy notes that the scheme had been recommended for refusal because of affordable housing, the related payment, and open-space concerns. Permission is one thing. Finding the money to build a multi-screen cinema, bus facility, and 85 apartments is another. The phone-in soon widens out. Robert calls about housing and the budget, saying he wants more houses now, especially council or social housing. Andy keeps asking the practical question: what should happen, and who pays? Buses come into it as well. Robert asks whether services are back by Wednesday, while Andy says further strikes have been threatened. So Lord Street does not sit on its own here. It lands alongside daily worries about transport, public spending, empty sites, and whether visible development is giving people services they can actually use. A closing listener text turns heavier, linking derelict spaces and development pressure with a fear that old Manx life is being remade by money-led policy. Andy does not dress that up. He leaves it there, with planning news and public frustration still in the air.

As heard by us

A live argument about buses, housing, and what progress looks like on the island.

Andy Wint spends the hour on the Lord Street bus station decision, where a split planning committee and the chair's deciding vote moved a 12-storey scheme with a cinema, a bus facility, and 85 apartments forward.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the Lord Street bus station vote explained through caller concerns.

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