Happy Friday! Thanks to everyone for signing and sharing the petition so far.

We went through 800 signatures overnight and it's less than 48 hours since the petition began.

Preston's MP yesterday afternoon sent us a copy of the letter he has written the Secretary of State urging her to consider significant funding to support the city's venue ambitions.

And we saw Preston Business Improvement District - who represent city centre firms - backed our campaign and told of the impact a lack of a major venue is having in particular on the city centre hospitality sector.

While the city's Labour administration and leader gave a cautious welcome to the petition - and repeated their commitment to the city having a major entertainment venue. Although the deputy leader in a separate comment branded it 'spin' after we published our story on Sir Mark Hendrick MP sending his letter - on the 12 March - to Lisa Nandy.

Most importantly, you've all shown in signing the petition the strength of feeling there is for having a major venue in the city again. So please keep signing, sharing and encouraging people to get involved.

Ed, Kate, Luke and all at Team BP