A TRADING Gossip spy was out in Warrington last Friday at the town’s business awards, where the great and good were in attendance.

Also there was Northwest Regional Development Agency chief executive Steve Broomhead, who spoke for a couple of minutes at the start as the NWDA was one of the event’s sponsors.

Curiously, Mr Broomhead, below – also chairman of rugby league club Warrington Wolves – didn’t once mention his doomed organisation in an unusually-brief speech, instead preferring to concentrate on the successful predictions of Paul the octopus.

Paul – for those who have been living under the sea – is the British-born cephalopod who correctly predicted the outcome of all seven of Germany’s World Cup games, plus the Spain- Netherlands final. If only psychic Paul had been able to visit the NWDA, maybe the Government’s decision to shut the organisation wouldn’t have come as such a surprise.

THERE were a couple of surprising choices of award winners. Retailer of the Year, sponsored by Golden Square Shopping Centre, was Boutique Hoco, the only one on the shortlist to be a tenant of, er, Golden Square.

Also picking up a gong was the Park Royal Hotel. Any guesses as to where the awards were held?

CHERYL COLE’S bout of malaria meant she missed Thursday’s Liverpool Y Factor, a talent show where business folk swapped grey suits for glad rags and sang their hearts out in aid of Mencap.

But radio’s Billy Butler manfully stepped into the breech, judging the efforts of singers including Jonathan Owen of Sutton Kersh and Heather Tomlinson of Barclaycard at Pan Am, Albert Dock.

Our congratulations to Helen Redmond, of Hill Dickinson, whose version of Stuck In The Middle With You won her top prize.