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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
The stalls and huts are up, the gluhwein is ready and the mug designs have been revealed - yes, Manchester Christmas Markets open tomorrow. I know, I know - it feels like it gets earlier every year.
Always a welcome addition to the city centre, the markets will run until December 22 and I for one am looking forward to a visit. But we are, sadly, going to have a slightly more slimmed down Christmas this year. Though festive lights will adorn the streets as usual, the switch-on event has been cancelled due to a lack of space while Albert Square is closed for the town hall restoration.
This year’s Bonfire Night events were also cancelled as the council prepares for further cuts to its already tight budget. Now bosses say that move could be permanent - and they’re warning the axe could potentially fall on future Christmas lights switch-on and New Year’s Eve fireworks displays.
With a forecasted financial shortfall of £96m over the next three years, the council needs to make £28m of savings in the next budget alone. Officers have proposed those events could still go ahead if private funding is secured.
But veteran councillor Pat Karney - widely known as the council’s ‘Mr Christmas’ - this morning made a plea to ‘save the lights’. He insisted Manchester’s Christmas Economy is ‘vital’ for jobs and tweeted: “Santa’s fave city is not going to be Santa’s unfave city”.
Manchester Council has opened a public consultation into its budget and is asking for the views of residents to help shape decisions on savings and Council Tax increases.
Council leader, Bev Craig says long term planning and a ‘clear focus on residents' priorities’ will allow the authority to navigate through another challenging budget.
Admissions
Housing association bosses have admitted they should have been 'more proactive' about damp and mould at the home of a toddler who died on a Rochdale estate.
The inquest into the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak is now entering its fourth day and coroner Joanne Kearsley has heard that mould was the 'most plausible, or only explanation' for Awaab's fatal breathing conditions
As Stephen Topping reports, on Tuesday, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) - which owns and manages the Freehold estate where Awaab died - informed Ms Kearsley it had taken on board comments made earlier in the inquest and accepted its approach had been 'inappropriate'.
Awaab was two when he died on December 21, 2020, after suffering respiratory problems that led to cardiac arrest on his way from Rochdale Urgent Care Centre to Royal Oldham Hospital.
In a statement, RBH said it received a letter from a health visitor in July 2020, supporting a request for the family to move home due to mould at the property.
A letter from solicitors followed for a disrepair claim on behalf of Awaab’s father - prompting RBH to carry out a disrepair report. The findings of that report concluded the majority of the mould was caused by ‘lifestyle and bathing habits’.
But RBH accepts its approach was ‘inappropriate’ and it should have taken responsibility for the mould issues and undertaken a ‘more proactive response’.
Boost for Northern arts and culture
The possible relocation of English National Opera to Manchester from London is proving controversial as Arts Council England (ACE) diverts grant money from the capital.
But, as Reach data unit’s Richard Ault reports, the shake up means art and cultural projects in Greater Manchester have been boosted by more than £4 million in additional funding.
A total of 54 organisations in our region will receive £30.2m in annual funding between 2023 and 2026 - an increase of £4.1m from the annual award that was made between 2018 and 2022.
Manchester International Festival has been awarded the biggest grant - £9.9m up from £9.7m. While the Royal Exchange Theatre Company Ltd has been awarded £2.4m, the Halle Concerts Society £2.1m and Manchester City Galleries £1.6m.
A number of organisations are being funded for the first time, including the National Football Museum, Wigan-based Arts at the Mill, and Proud and Loud Arts, based in Salford.
But not everyone was celebrating the award. Wigan-based Curious Minds was hit with a 40 per cent cut to its funding, which dropped by £535,323 to £800,000.
Arts Council England chief executive, Darren Henley, says it’s the widest-ever spread of investment across the country.
“We are in tough times but we must remember creativity brings with it extraordinary dividends, boosting our country’s economic growth, creating jobs, bringing communities closer together, and making us happier as individuals.”
‘I won't be doing backflips’
Councillors in Oldham claim to have ‘no confidence’ in Andy Burnham’s ‘management’ of Greater Manchester Police.
The force was lifted out of ‘special measures’ earlier this month following recent progress under the leadership of Chief Constable Stephen Watson.
But Saddleworth West and Lees member Mark Kenyon said the fact Mr Burnham is ‘doing a victory lap of backslapping shows how far our expectations have fallen’, as Charlotte Green reports.
“We no longer have one of the absolute worst police services in the UK – yay. Forgive me if I don’t do back-flips.”
Mr Kenyon, one of the two councillors behind a no-confidence motion, said there is ‘huge respect and sympathy’ for frontline officers who are ‘trying to do a job with one arm held behind their back by an inept Mayoral leadership’.
The Liberal Democrat group asked the chief executive to write to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor Baroness Bev Hughes to inform them of the council’s ‘lack of confidence in their ability to effectively manage GMP’. The motion was defeated at a full council meeting.
An incredible career of service
Greater Manchester deputy mayor, Baroness Bev Hughes, will step down from the role next year. And Stretford and Urmston Labour MP Kate Green is set to replace her.
Ms Green - who has already announced she would not be seeking re-election - has been nominated by Andy Burnham.
If she is appointed deputy mayor before a General Election, her departure would spark a byelection. Trafford Council leader Andrew Western was selected as Labour's candidate for Stretford and Urmston earlier this year.
Baroness Hughes, 72, has served as deputy mayor for policing, crime, criminal justice and fire on behalf of the mayor since 2017, taking on formal oversight of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in 2020. She was re-elected for a second term last year.
She was Stretford and Urmston Labour MP from 1997 to 2010.
Mrs Hughes said she is proud to have overseen changes in leadership at both the fire service and police force; to have led on the first integrated health and support service for people in police custody in the country and on Greater Manchester’s justice devolution deal.
Mr Burnham said: “Bev has given an incredible career of service to the public of Greater Manchester and is a very hard act to follow. However, I’m confident I have found someone with the calibre, character, and values to do just that.”
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Weather etc
- Temperatures: Cloudy. 15C.
- Trams: Revised service on Manchester Metrolink due to over running engineering works at Piccadilly Gardens. Some Metrolink services are operating with changes until the end of November when the works can be finished. Bury and Altrincham services are not operating into Piccadilly station. Ashton services are operating to Crumpsall via Victoria. Eccles services are only operating to Deansgate. Until November 30.
- Trains: Special timetable operating on Transpennine Express due to shortage of train crews. Passengers are advised to check their journey if travelling with Transpennine Express. Trains that do run are expected to be very busy.
- Trivia question: Bev Hughes was Labour leader of which Greater Manchester council between 1995 and 1997?
Manchester headlines
Arrests: Police have arrested four people in relation to a drive-by shooting in Moss Side that left two teenage girls injured. Armed officers arrested three people in Middleton and another in Sheffield. All four suspects were held on suspicion of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. They remained in custody for questioning today. More her e.
Most viewed: The writer of an indie film starring Michelle Keegan - dubbed an 'awful Salford-set Shameless rip-off' - and slammed for its use of 'vile stereotypes' has defended the movie after it shot to number nine on Netflix's most viewed. Chris Green, 55, from Lower Broughton, directed and wrote 'Strangeways Here We Come' about a group of council-estate residents dealing with an ‘evil’ loan shark. The film was slated by critics, but Chris says it was derived from his own experiences as a postman at Salford Precinct. “I think [the critics] had this idea that I was this middle-class filmmaker coming into the area to exploit the working class. This was made by someone who lived there.”
Overwhelmed: Peter Kay says he has been 'overwhelmed' by the reaction to his comeback. He revealed during a chat with Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show that he kept the filming of a special advert to promote his tour quiet - and even borrowed the carpet from a local shop. "I could not get over... I was lying in bed with Susan on Monday night because I had a show, a practice, and Huw Edwards was on the news with a picture of me behind him. He was doing the Queen's funeral and he's talking about me! I'm going, 'I'm on the news! The main news! This is ridiculous.’ I thought it's got to be a slow news day, hasn't it?"
Worth a read
Crack dealer Derek McDuffus dreamed of becoming a chef, but when gang lord Dessie Noonan knocked on his door one night in 2005, he became a murderer.
Damon Wilkinson has been looking at the life of ‘Yardie Derek’ for the final part of a series about some of Manchester’s most notorious criminals, and has revealed that McDuffus was freed from prison April 2020 - at the height of the first coronavirus lockdown.
You can read the background here.
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: Trafford Council.
