Dubbed the Glastonbury of food festivals, the market town of Malton is set to host a Food Lovers Fest to kick off 2022.
Due to overwhelming public demand, there will be two Food Lovers Festival this year, rather than the usual one.
Set across the quaint streets of Malton, known as Yorkshire’s Food Capital, the flavoursome feast will welcome visitors from across the country to celebrate the finest produce from Yorkshire and beyond.
Home to plenty of artisan producers and award-winning independent businesses, visitors to the Malton Food Lovers Festivals will not be disappointed.
This year, expect a huge array of unique stalls with tasty treats and gorgeous gifts, celebrity chef talks and demonstrations, live music and fun for all the family. The exact line-up is yet to be announced, but across the six day event, visitors can expect only the best of home-grown goods to be in attendance.
Doubling the servings, the Malton Food Lovers Festivals will be sandwiching the summer with two events: first at the very beginning of summer, across the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, Friday 3- Sunday 5 June 2022), and again across the August Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday 27 - Monday 29 August 2022, during that final weekend of sunshine before autumn arrives in Yorkshire.
The 2021 event was the first three-day Food Lovers Festival since Malton's festival beginnings over a decade ago. Both 2022 events will take place over three days thanks to the support that last year's festival received.
Image: Visit Malton
Benoit Blin, Master Pâtissier and judge from Channel 4’s Bake Off: The Professionals, who headlined the Main Stage of last year’s festival, commented: “Malton is a lovely place to be. It’s so nice to see people being able to come out and enjoy some street food and the atmosphere once again. I’m sure I’ll be back; it’s a fantastic place!”
If you can't wait until June to visit the foodie capital, the first Monthly Food Market of the year will take place this weekend on Saturday 12 March in Malton, which will then take place every second Saturday of the month.
Stallholders can now register their interest in attending the Food Lovers Festival on the Visit Malton website.
The Food Lovers Festival is free to attend, and a Park and Ride is available at each entrance to Malton from the A64, with a free shuttle bus service to the event.
Feature Image- Visit Malton
Business
Petition launched to save independent matcha stand operating from a Leeds front garden
An independent matcha stand in Leeds has launched a petition to save the business, after council concerns could result in its closure.
This front garden matcha spot is none other than Sips Matcha, and it's safe to say its become a firm favourite in Leeds, with more than 12,000 followers on Instagram.
Many of us have made the trip to the vibrant green, family-run matcha shed at its Little Woodhouse residential location, and tasting some of Leeds' best matcha while nattering away to Matt and Julia, but this could soon change.
The self-proclaimed 'tiniest matcha stand in Leeds' only just celebrated its one year anniversary, but now faces closure in the coming weeks after a retroactive planning application was rejected.
According to Sips Matcha, Leeds City Council has given them 28 days' notice to stop trading and remove the shed.
In this published document via Leeds City Council website, multiple reasons are listed for the decision to refuse planning permission for the bright-green matcha shed.
This electronic letter signed by Martin Elliot, Chief Planning Officer, lists spoiling the property's character, increased footfall, and a failure to comply with numerous development and design policies.
The full statement reads: "The Local Planning Authority considers that the design, scale and position of the wooden shed fails to respect the previously un spoilt character of the host property, resulting in an unacceptable impact on visual amenity and the wider street scene.
"The Local Planning Authority considers that the use of the shed for retail sales in this quiet residential location would result in an unacceptable impact on the amenity of local residents due to increased levels of comings-and-goings, demand for parking and antisocial behaviour including increased noise and litter, to the significant detriment of neighbouring amenity."
The matcha maestros have now launched a petition urging people to save Sips Matcha, labelling the painted wooden shed-turned-coffee shop as a 'Community Stand'.
Co-owner Julia has published a statement via the petition link where she details: "After being made redundant and at a crossroads in life Matt threw himself into making Sips something special - and it has become exactly that...
"Their concerns are that the shed is in a front garden, and that the business could cause nuisance - litter, traffic and parking issues. In over a year of trading, none of these have been a problem. Leeds City Council asked neighbours on the street for their opinion. Not one negative response.
"We are a registered food business with Leeds City Council, insured and hold our food and hygiene certificates. They have now asked us to stop trading and remove the shed within 28 days."
Leeds has been crowned the UK’s top construction hotspot
Clementine Hall
Leeds has been ranked the number one city in the UK for construction growth.
Well well well, it seems we've got another accolade under our belt.
A new survey has revealed that Leeds leads the way in national construction growth, outdoing London and other major cities. How cool is that?
It's all down to a number of factors, including high housing completions, strong planning activity, and thriving construction businesses.
The findings are all down to Astrak’s new Construction Hotspot Index, which analysed job availability, planning activity, housing completions and construction businesses across 12 major UK cities.
Leeds performed strongly across all key indicators used in the index, beating the likes of Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham in the national rankings.
Key findings for Leeds included:
1,343 live construction job adverts – one of the highest in the UK
1,017 planning application decisions in Q2 2025 – a strong indicator of future developments
4,327 housing completions – the latest government annual data shows the highest rate per capita
3,760 construction businesses – per capita, second only to London
James Coughlan, CMO at Astrak, commented: “Leeds is clearly a city building for the future. With strong demand for skilled workers, a thriving business base and thousands of new homes completed, it’s a great time to be in construction here.
“The city offers a wide range of opportunities – from on-site trades to technical and office-based roles, and with even more growth forecast, we expect demand for talent to keep rising well into 2026 and beyond.”
We can't say we're surprised, and although it may be frustrating for construction to be popping up here there and everywhere the city is benefitting from recent developments such as Aire Park and the South Village.
Sophie Smith -
10th March 2022 
