“It makes me feel sh**,” single mum-of-five Rachel Parks says as she shelters from the blazing sun. “You can't have as many nice days out with the kids.”
Temperatures are rising in Prestwich and the air smells like hot tarmac. Rachel, 39, glances down at her baby as she tenderly feeds him a snack. Beside her is a trolley full of shopping from Aldi.
“It’s hard in the holidays,” the teaching assistant added. “You don’t get anything if you work – no meal vouchers, nothing. I’m just shopping constantly and working more to shop more.
