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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
Ramadan Mubarak. My colleague Rami Mwamba has plenty of information about Ramadan, including some top tips for those marking their first Ramadan and what to expect when fasting.
On to the day’s news. In today’s newsletter, we’ll be discussing how anti-social behaviour is being handled with FIFA and how ‘New York’ on Tib Street has caused a stir. But first, I’d like to discuss some unusual plans to tackle bed blocking.
'Modern day convalescence’
The critical and ongoing problems within the social care system have been well documented. But I was quite surprised to read this piece by Nick Statham about a private company asking people to rent out rooms in their home for patients coming out of hospital.
It’s aimed at easing the nationwide shortfall in social care, which often means patients are unable to leave hospital because of a lack of suitable care in available community facilities. In turn this backs up the hospital system, leaving patients using vital bed space when they are healthy enough to leave.
CareRooms.com plans to trial the scheme in Stockport, aiming to set up a network of ‘hosts’ in and around the town. Hosts would be paid a rental income and would be expected to offer tea and sympathy and three meals a day provided by the company.
Hosts would be vetted, interviewed and DBS checked and offered training and support packages. Similar schemes rolled out elsewhere in the country have been dubbed 'Care bnb'.
It’s understood payment would come from the public sector, though Nick is trying to find out a little more about how it would work.
CareRooms.com chief operations officer Lizzie Gaudin says the scheme is akin to ‘modern day convalescence’. “People lose confidence after being ill, especially if they have no support at home, or they may be younger and a nursing home with elderly residents may not be appropriate for that transition period between hospital and home,” she says.
Stockport Council bosses fully support the scheme and say it will ensure hospital beds in the borough can be used for patients in the most acute need while those in need are supported in ‘a less institutionalised way’.
It certainly sounds like a good idea, but I find it quite extraordinary that social care is so stretched that we could soon be relying on the kindness of strangers to fill the gap.
Nowhere else to go
When school kicks out, many children head to Greater Manchester’s bus stations and interchanges. But for some, their presence is an unwelcome addition to the commute.
Charity Foundation 92 says teenagers have developed a reputation on Manchester's public transport networks for causing a nuisance - including shouting, swearing, and vaping.
All fairly normal teenage behaviour you may think. But the charity says the complaints they attract are a symptom of years of spending cuts that resulted in the closure of youth zones across Greater Manchester.
There were 2,663 'youth-related' incidents of anti-social behaviour reported to Transport for Greater Manchester in 2022 - a 20 per cent rise on the previous year. Reporter Nicole Wootton-Cane has been speaking to the charity about how they are tackling the problem with a minibus, an Xbox and staff who are willing to listen.
"If you look around now there's no youth football pitch where we can play with them - a lot of the time it's just that they are bored. We've all been at that age at 15 or 16 where there is nothing to do, and they feel like the only thing to do is mess around,” says Jess Peers, who heads up the youth work side of Better Than That - a campaign aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour on the public transport network.
F92 is thought to have engaged with more than 400 people across ten locations using a minibus. And the work has helped eradicate instances of young people throwing missiles at passing buses - something that was previously happening multiple times a day.
Swings and roundabouts
The Clean Air Zone has caused no end of debate here in Greater Manchester. And while the latest plans for the controversial scheme are on pause awaiting Government approval, the police are making good use of its benefits.
As Chris Gee reports, hundreds of roadside surveillance cameras installed to enforce CAZ have been used to help solve two murders, fatal hit and run crashes, a drugs case and other crimes.
However the 407 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) live cameras installed for the scheme - the vast majority of which are unlikely to be used for the purpose they were installed - are costing Transport for Greater Manchester £375,000 per month in electricity bills.
You can read more about that revelation - which came out at a Bolton Council meeting - here.
Student protesters ‘dragged’ from uni building
Student protesters occupying a building at the University of Manchester were forcibly removed by court bailiffs this morning, as Chris Slater reports.
Students in the 'UoM Rent Strike' group have been occupying the Simon building on Oxford Road since February 13 as part of an ongoing protest over rent costs and living conditions in university-owned accommodation. They previously took over a further three buildings on campus.
They are demanding a 30 percent rent cut backdated to October, a cap on rent for the next three years, for the university to aim to provide student halls that meet the NUS definition of 'affordable' and for no disciplinary action to be taken against strikers.
Last week university bosses began action to remove the occupiers from the Simon building, issuing court papers. The High Court granted a possession order for the whole of the university's South Campus on Monday, with notice being served on the occupiers.
The group said the bailiffs 'arrived with no warning' at around 5.20am this morning after 'forcing entry through the door'. “Occupiers refused to leave of their own accord, so bailiffs forcefully dragged and carried them out the building,” the protest group said.
A University of Manchester spokesperson said the action followed multiple requests to those occupying the building to leave. “We very much regret having to do this, but the situation has been going on for a significant amount of time and has caused ongoing disruption to students and the people who work in the building,” they said.
‘Another one of those set in ‘New York’. But, y’know, it’s Tib Street’
The Star & Garter - the iconic Manchester music venue that stands alone on the corner of Fairfield Street - is owed some money. Quite a lot of money as it goes.
It turns out the makers of 5lbs of Pressure - a film starring Welsh actor Luke Evans - owe the venue £10,000. And they’ve so far failed to pay up.
The beloved pub was used as stand-in for a New York dive bar, with filming taking place last summer. But nearly six months later, landlord Andy Martin says he has not been seen a penny, as Ben Arnold reports.
“They filmed last October over about a fortnight, and since then it’s just been this same excuse about investors dropping out, new investors, bridging loans. Then saying it’s all been signed and the money will be in next week,” Andy claims.
“And it’s not just me. There are crew-members and contractors that were brought in to do artwork and build sets. As far as I know, the actors got paid.
“One of the extras was a fairly regular attendee at the pub for years, so I messaged him asking if he’d got paid, and he said ‘oh yeah’. He was playing a New York citizen. He’s from Stockport. It’s another one of those set in ‘New York’. But, y’know, it’s Tib Street.”
Andy says using the pub as a location has been a source of income ‘for years’ and has ‘paid the bills for a long time’.
Producer Zac Weinstein, of Paint Night Productions, has apologised and insists the venue will be paid, along with all other vendors and crew who have outstanding invoices with the production. “This has been an awful situation brought on by a painful chain of events that has resulted in the final tranche of the financing for the film being delayed,” he said.
'Hand on heart'
As I sent this newsletter, Boris Johnson was giving evidence to the Privileges select committee. The former prime minister swore ‘hand on heart, I did not lie to the House’ as he was questioned by MPs over whether he misled the Commons with his denials about ‘Partygate’ this afternoon.
Harriet Harman, chairwoman of the Privileges Committee, rejected Mr Johnson’s demand that the inquiry only considers his discussion of coronavirus guidance. The Labour grandee said the MPs on the cross-party committee will leave their ‘party interests at the door of the committee room and conduct our work in the interests of the House’ as she dismissed claims of bias.
She insisted the committee is ‘not relying’ on evidence provided by the Sue Gray report, as allies of Mr Johnson claim the inquiry is a ‘witch hunt’ now that the civil servant is joining Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s office.
Mr Johnson swore on the Bible to tell the truth before issuing an apology and adding: “I’m here to say to you, hand on heart, I did not lie to the House. When those statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis on what I honestly knew and believed at the time.”
He said if it was so ‘obvious’ that rule-breaking was going on in No 10, as the committee argues, then it would also have been ‘obvious’ to others, including Rishi Sunak. He argued that the process being used to decide whether he was in contempt of Parliament is ‘manifestly unfair’.
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Weather etc
Thursday: Cloudy changing to light showers by lunchtime. 12C.
Road closures: M61 Northbound closed, queueing traffic due to accident at J5 A58 Snydale Way (Westhoughton). There is also a lane closed on the southbound side. Incident occurred at around 10.25 which has since closed the road. Diversion - via the exit and entry slip roads.
One lane closed and slow traffic due to recovery work and accident on M6 Northbound from J24 A58 Liverpool Road (Ashton In Makerfield ) to J25 (Bryn). Lane one (of three) is closed.
Trivia question: Which soft drink, created in Manchester, is an Iftar favourite?
Manchester headlines
- Adjourned: Music venue Night & Day cafe’s future remains in the balance after another court hearing ended without decision. A three-day trial was adjourned in January to allow for out-of-court discussions. A two-day hearing was supposed to resolve the issue this week. But yesterday’s proceedings were also adjourned. The venue is appealing against a noise abatement notice served by Manchester City Council in November 2021 over the noise from speakers seeping into neighbouring flats during late-night club events. Despite efforts from both parties to reach an agreement, key differences remain. Extra testing will now be carried out.
- Bikes on the Met: Allowing bicycles on board Metrolink trams would 'cause major problems', a committee of councillors was told as transport bosses revealed plans to use a quiet siding as an off-network testing site for a 'soft trial'. One councillor said passengers already struggled to get on packed peak-time trams and stressed people with prams, electric scooters, different-sized mobility scooters and suitcases already use the network together with, now, dogs. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), meanwhile, revealed it was looking at using volunteers with bikes to conduct a 'mock up' test off the live tram network, possibly at Crumpsall. More here.
Financial firepower: Local leaders have signed an historic deal with the government which gives Greater Manchester new powers over transport, housing and technical education with mayor Andy Burnham handed full control over finances. The trailblazer devolution deal was signed by Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison, Mr Burnham and the 10 council leaders yesterday. Speaking at the signing ceremony hosted by Manchester College at its new campus on the former Boddingtons brewery site near the city centre, the Conservative minister said the new deal will 'revolutionise' the way that Mr Burnham's office works and, by doing so, improve people's lives. She said the deal gives the Labour mayor the 'flexibility' and 'financial fire power' to rise to the challenges the city-region faces and allow it to 'reach its true potential'. More here.
Podcast: A special podcast revealing how Thomas Campbell was brutally murdered in his own home has been released by the Manchester Evening News. The one-off episode tells the story of how the dad-of-two was 'tortured to death' after being ambushed when he went to open his front door. It features a conversation between court reporter Andrew Bardsley, who covered every day of the crown court trial, and podcast editor Daniel McLaughlin. You can listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Worth a read
"You could get sacked from one job and walk right next door and get another straight away,” says Bridget Doherty as she recalls the days when sweatshops and packing firms lined Oldham Road.
But, as Damon Wilkinson reports, the inner-city district of Manchester traditionally known as New Cross has changed dramatically. Most of the pubs are long gone and the factories have been replaced by hotels and tower blocks.
Even the name New Cross has fallen out of use, having been swallowed up by the Northern Quarter and Ancoats in the headlong rush of regeneration that is modern-day Manchester.
Damon has been looking back on the neighbourhood that was home of some of Manchester's first printers and was ‘a hotbed of dissent, debauchery and unrest’, such as the food riots of 1812 and the slaying of William Bradshaw and Joshua Whitworth in the aftermath of Peterloo.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: Vimto.
