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Hello,
You’ll forgive me for paraphrasing the title of that great Smiths album in the headline, but the news that Manchester Council wants to close the famous prison and move it out of the city is quite something.
Leader Bev Craig says there has been a long-term ambition to move HMP Manchester, but the council is only now actively pursuing this with the Ministry of Justice.
She says its city centre location ‘acts as a barrier to growth and development which could bring new jobs, much-needed houses and green space’.
Coun Craig was speaking to reporter Paul Britton as she marks her first year in the top job - and further details of that chat will be published over the weekend.
But she’s been firm about improving the area around the famous prison for some time - not least because a new Travelodge hotel and the £93m campus for Manchester College are just yards from stores selling counterfeit goods.
When she first took the reigns, the leader said: “We have to have more aspiration for that bit of the city than being able to buy a ripped off North Face jacket.”
Council staff are writing to the Government to kick start talks about the prison. The move comes as Greater Manchester Police continue a major crackdown on adjacent 'counterfeit street'.
Buildings on Bury New Road could be bulldozed as part of radical plans to smash what police described as a national magnet for criminality, including street drug dealing and the selling of counterfeit goods. The Chief Constable is said to have pledged resources ‘for as long as it takes’ to clean up the area for good.
The prison building itself is said to be unfit for significant remodelling or expansion for its current use. But I can easily imagine a savvy property developer turning the huge estate into trendy apartments and using the features of the Grade II-listed Victorian prison to hike up prices. I can see the brochure now - ‘A studio apartment in the Strangeways tower will set you back £2,500 a month’.
It would certainly be strange to imagine the city centre without the vast perimeter wall and the iconic 234-foot tower. By this point it’s as much a part of Mancunian culture as Beetham Tower and the Gallaghers.
Everyone from Victoria Wood to Kate Bush has referenced the prison in their work. It might not be our most glamorous landmark, but it’s certainly one of the most famous.
Most Christian and most godless areas revealed
The latest census data has thrown up some interesting data about our villages, towns and suburbs.
It shows that fewer than one in two people in Greater Manchester now describe themselves as Christian.
A decade ago, 61.8 per cent of the region’s population called themselves Christian - now it’s just 47 per cent. Meanwhile, there has been a big rise in the number of people who said they had ‘no religion’. On the day of the 2021 census, 31.9 per cent said they were not religious in any way, up from 20.8 per cent a decade ago.
Reach data unit’s Richard Ault has been looking at the hyperlocal figures and has worked out the most Christian and godless neighbourhoods.
Top ten neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of Christians
- Aspull & Red Rock, Wigan - 71.1%
- Winstanley, Wigan - 70.9%
- New Springs, Wigan - 70.6%
- Orrell & Longshaw, Wigan - 70.1%
- Shaw & Crompton, Oldham - 68.4%
- Harwood, Bolton - 67.9%
- Standish South, Wigan - 67.8%
- Alkrington, Rochdale - 67.8%
- Ashton-in-Makerfield West, Wigan - 67.8%
- Worsley Mesnes & Hawkley, Wigan - 67.7%
Top ten neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of with ‘no religion’
- Piccadilly & Ancoats, Manchester - 60.9%
- Castlefield & Deansgate, Manchester - 54.9%
- New Islington South & Bradford, Manchester - 52.8%
- Brinnington, Stockport - 52.6%
- City Centre North & Collyhurst, Manchester - 52.6%
- Ordsall East, Salford - 52.3%
- University North & Whitworth Street, Manchester - 52%
- Withington West, Manchester - 51.4%
- Hattersley, Tameside - 51.3%
- Beech Road & Chorlton Meadows, Manchester - 51%
The data also shows that 13 per cent of Greater Manchester’s population identify as Muslim, 1 per cent as Jewish, 0.3 per cent as Sikh, 1 per cent as Hindu and 0.3% as Buddhist.
Across England and Wales, 46.2 per cent of the population described themselves as Christian, down from 59.3% a decade earlier, the ONS said.
The Archbishop of York said the census data showed the country had ‘left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian’.
United by Your Side
Warm banks have been popping up across Greater Manchester to help those in need of a warm space as the cold months settle in.
And Manchester United is the latest organisation to open up its doors to help the most vulnerable.
During December the club will open Old Trafford’s Red Cafe with hot snacks and drinks as part of its winter campaign - United by Your Side.
The area will be available free to everyone (under 16s need an adult with them)for the next three Mondays and Wednesdays from 5pm - 8pm. ‘Talking benches’ will also be set up on the forecourt at Old Trafford.
CAZ you like it
The Clean Air Zone has become hugely problematic for Andy Burnham. And while local leaders wait for a response from the government on their latest proposals for a non-charging scheme, feelings are still running high.
The Greater Manchester mayor clashed with an angry caller during a heated on BBC Radio Manchester this week, as Joseph Timan reports. He said the scheme was never intended to raise revenue - but caller Chris, from Salford, accused the mayor of 'obfuscating' and ‘lies and deflection’.
Mr Burnham said he called for the region's cycling and walking infrastructure to be prioritised and for air quality to be monitored before becoming mayor, but the government 'forced' Greater Manchester into a deal in which charges would be imposed with insufficient funding for vehicle upgrades.
He said he has no objection to a Clean Air Zone, as long as it does not involve charging drivers and helps them to upgrade their vehicles.
Over the summer, the government agreed to pause the plans to charge the most highly polluting vans, lorries, buses and taxis following a huge public backlash.
The young knife crime victims ending up in hospital
Dozens of young knife crime victims ended up in A&E over the summer - but the numbers are said to have fallen ‘dramatically’ since last year.
A total of 58 young people aged under 25 were treated by medics over the summer.
Deputy Mayor Bev Hughes says knife crime in Greater Manchester remains too high, but she is optimistic about work being done to tackle the problem, as John Scheerhout reports.
There were 4,510 recorded incidents of knife crime in the year ending March 2022, up 18 per cent on the year before, according to an annual report produced by the deputy mayor's office.
But Ms Hughes says there is a three-year 'downward trend' in admissions to hospital of young stabbing victims in Greater Manchester.
“In Greater Manchester this summer there were approximately 58 A&E attendances of victims of a knife assault aged under-25, down from approximately 106 in the summer of 2021.
"This is promising as it indicates that although knife-related offences remain much higher than they should be, the use of a knife leading to A&E attendance is decreasing," she said.
Her comments follow a shocking week of serious stabbing incidents, one which ended in the death of 17-year-old Kyle Hackland in Withington on November 22. On the same day a man was left fighting for his life after being stabbed in Whitefield. Then, on November 27, a 15-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after being stabbed in a 3am robbery in Old Trafford.
Last summer we reported on how 68 young people had been seen at four Greater Manchester hospitals with injuries sustained through violence - in the space of just ten weeks. The youngest was just eleven-years-old.
And during the pandemic year, 64 children were arrested on suspicion of knife and firearms offences in Greater Manchester. Of those, 45 were charged, according to information obtained last year from Greater Manchester Police via a Freedom of Information request.
Youth ‘navigators’ tasked with helping young people caught up in violence, now work across the region as part of the Violence Reduction Unit. I met them outside Manchester Royal Infirmary last year, and navigator Shaun Tomlinson told me they deal mostly with school students, aged around 13 - 20. He said the scheme had, even in those early days, allowed them to reach youngsters who would not otherwise be seen.
“We’ve had a few where they’re not necessarily presented with what they would describe as an injury due to violence but maybe something’s not quite sat right with the consultant and they felt the person needed someone to speak to,” he said. “So they’ve been referred to us and that’s opened up all kinds of issues where they needed support.”
Ms Hughes - who is set to retire next year - says help and support is available. "Ultimately, we all have a responsibility to end violence amongst young people. Teachers, parents, guardians, friends, and extended family members can all play a vital role in preventing young people from becoming involved in knife crime by speaking out if they have concerns,” she said.
Weather etc
- Saturday: Partly cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning. 7C.
- Road closures: A560 Stockport Road in both directions closed due to water main work between A627 Dowson Road and Hill Street until December 8. A676 Bolton Street in both directions closed, slow traffic due to water main work between Smithy Street and Callender Street until December 8.
- Trivia question: During which year did the Strangeways prison riots take place?
Manchester headlines
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New student halls: Plans for new purpose-built student accommodation to help tackle a shortage of rooms in the city have been submitted to Manchester Council. The scheme would see the Carmoor Road Garage and Ciara’s Tots building, on Moss Lane East, redeveloped into around 172 student bedrooms, in an adjournment to the existing Brook Hall student development, off Upper Trinity Street. The site includes a Grade II-listed building, which would be retained and converted. More here.
- Hydrogen-powered: Manchester Airport has unveiled plans to be the first in the UK with direct access to a hydrogen fuel pipeline. The airport said hydrogen technology was expected to play a key role in decarbonising the aviation sector, with hydrogen-powered aircraft expected to come into operation from the mid-2030s for short-haul journeys. And it said a research project involving Manchester Airports Group estimated the demand for liquid hydrogen at an airport the size of Manchester could be 6.5 million litres a day by 2050. Bosses have confirmed a partnership with HyNet, one of the UK's leading Government-backed industrial decarbonisation projects.
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Inquests opened: Inquests into the four Vietnamese men whose remains were discovered following a mill fire in Oldham have now been opened and adjourned. Uoc Van Nguyen, Cuong Van Chu, Duong Van Nguyen and Nam Thanh Lee have all been formally identified following the tragedy at the derelict Bismark House Mill. Rochdale Coroners Court, heard how detectives were able to identify three of the men by travelling to Vietnam and matching DNA with their grieving relatives. An inquest into Cuong's death was opened as an unidentified person back in August. A criminal investigation is ongoing and police are still searching the area for evidence.
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Not exempt: Volunteers at charity Lifeshare say Manchester City Council repeatedly issue them parking tickets while they serve breakfast to the homeless. Kim Law says she and her colleagues have had 'half a dozen' tickets over the last year as they park in a loading bay on Oldham Street, in Manchester city centre. They leave letters on windscreens explaining their situation. But the council say they’re not exempt. More here.
Worth a read
Thousands of students took to the streets of Manchester on Wednesday night for the annual Reclaim the Streets demonstration.
Armed with banners daubed with messages like 'misogyny is hate' and 'safety is a right, not a privilege', their chants about gender based violence echoed through the streets.
Reporter Sophie Halle-Richards was in Fallowfield talking to those who felt compelled to join the protest and filed this report.
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: 1990.
