Manchester's chief constable has tempered expectations following last week's announcement that parts of 'Counterfeit Street' will face demolition. The Manchester Evening News previously revealed how, under the orders of Chf Con Stephen Watson, plans were being drawn up for the compulsory purchase of buildings along the infamous stretch of Bury New Road in Strangeways.
Those buildings would be closed up, flattened and the land made available for redevelopment, explained Detective Superintendent Neil Blackwood - Greater Manchester Police's officer in charge of Operation Vulcan, which is targeting organised crime on 'Counterfeit Street'.
But in his regular 'hotseat' appearance on BBC Radio Manchester this morning (November 1), Chf Con Watson appeared to back-pedal on the project. He labelled talk of bulldozing buildings as 'media hyperbole' - but then went onto explain how unsafe buildings on the notorious stretch could, in fact, face demolition after all.
Chf Con Watson said: "If you look at some of these buildings, they have been chopped up into many, many places.
"They are physically unsafe - the fire service would simply condemn them because they are fire traps, fire hazards." He continued: "If you take a building that's been chopped up, we don't know who the beneficial owner is, nobody's paying any rates, the thing is a fire hazard - well it's in those circumstances that I do want the property to be compulsory purchased.
"And if we can't make any use of that building, then perhaps they should be bulldozed because at that point, they can give rise to honest developers, people who might run legitimate businesses. We can bring some legitimate economic life back in that area for the people who live there."
Det Supt Blackwood told the M.E.N. last week that the order to dismantle criminal activity at Strangeways 'comes directly from our Chief Constable'. Asked directly if Op Vulcan ultimately included demolition of the buildings used as warrens for counterfeit sales, he said: "Yes. We are going for closure orders, with Manchester City Council, then compulsory purchase orders.
"We are probably in the position of clear, hold, build. Clear it, and hold, so no one comes back, and then its Manchester City Council's gift to give in terms of rebuilding. Most of those buildings will end up at the end of a bulldozer. Most unrecoverable, because they have been chopped and changed around."
Should the buildings be demolished? Have your say in our comments below.
Chf Con Watson told BBC Radio Manchester that there is no end date for the project, but his officers are 'in this for the long haul'. It comes as officers continue their crackdown on organised crime in the area through Op Vulcan.
There are 33 known organised crime groups linked to the area - with activity at Strangeways linked to money laundering, firearms, drugs, modern-day slavery and illegal immigration. Chf Con Watson described the area as a 'disgrace' and claimed that illegal operations had 'pushed aside' legitimate business on Bury New Road.
He told the BBC: "We see organised immigration offences, we see organised exploitation of people in terms of modern slavery, we see people being sexually exploited. We see kids who are paid by organised crime groups to keep a lookout - and if they don't give an early warning of an impending raid, they're savagely beaten.
"We have people who find it cheaper to transport dirty plates from restaurants to have them washed by unseen people who are clearly being exploited than to pay minimum wage for their own pot washers. This has been the case in Cheetham Hill for nearly 30 years. We really cannot put up with that, right slap bang in the centre of our city, and the public shouldn't have to put up with it."
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