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With half term fast approaching the city’s attractions - including Manchester Museum - are set to open up again. Among those to reopen will be Manchester's park in the skies, The Castlefield Viaduct.
The New York High Line-style gardens sit a few metres above the oldest part of the city on top of a Grade II-listed viaduct which was built by engineers who worked on Blackpool Tower.
Run by the National Trust, the gardens opened to visitors last summer as part of a one-year trial. At the time, numbers were limited due to weight concerns on the Victorian structure - which used to carry trains to Great Northern Warehouse before its closure in 1969.
But guests will no longer need to pre-book to see the £1.8m park when it reopens on February 18. Instead they can turn up from 1pm onwards to explore it at their own pace.
City centre reporter Ethan Davies has been speaking to gardeners from Hulme Community Garden Centre and Sow The City, who have new spaces at the viaduct.
“Our mini forest garden demonstrates how visitors to the viaduct can reconnect with nature on their doorstep whilst growing nutritious additions to their diet for improved health and well-being,” says designer Kath Gavin. Meanwhile Sow The City has introduced a pond.
The National Trust’s Rebecca Alexander hopes the new entry rules will draw even more people to the site. “The feedback we gathered in the first four months of being open to the public revealed that virtually all our visitors would like to see the viaduct become a permanent feature of Manchester,” she says.
Awaab’s Law will become a reality
The campaign to establish Awaab's Law has taken a major step forward.
The toddler’s family have been in discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) about a change in law in his memory.
Amendments have now been made to the Social Housing Regulation Bill and will be tabled today. Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove has been in Rochdale to meet with Awaab’s parents, Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin.
Mr Gove told reporter Stephen Topping - whose investigation uncovered widespread problems with mould and damp on the child’s estate - that Awaab's Law will become a reality.
"I was able to explain to Awaab's family that we will be changing the law, in line with their wishes,” Mr Gove said. "Awaab’s Law will become a reality and people in social housing will be guaranteed to have action if they find that there are threats to their health and the condition of their home is not good enough."
Time limits for carrying out inspections and work on damp and mould will be enforced and included in tenancy agreements. Landlords could be sued for breaching them. The exact timeframes will be set following a consultation period and brought into statute by a secondary piece of legislation.
Clear information will also be provided to all tenants on their rights, what to expect with regards to health and safety in their home and how to make a complaint. The campaign has also called for tenants who needed to move home due to a health risk to be given priority for new housing.
Did Gove go ‘rogue’?
You’ll remember that Mr Gove was in Manchester when he made the announcement promising £30m to improve social housing following Awaab Ishak’s tragic death - with £15m going to Greater Manchester.
But was that speech even more significant than we realised? Could it - as Labour have today suggested - have led the Treasury to insist on sign-off for big Levelling Up projects?
Communities minister Lee Rowley has confirmed that the department must now get Treasury approval for new capital spending decisions. And Lisa Nandy asked if the decision had been prompted by ‘unauthorised spending commitments’ made by the Levelling Up Secretary during the Convention for the North.
The shadow communities secretary referred to a report in the Financial Times, which stated the department has been ‘banned from making spending decisions on new capital projects without specific permission from the Treasury, after concerns were raised about the ministry’s ability to deliver value for money’.
Ms Nandy said: “If this report is true, we are in the absurd situation of having a Secretary of State for Levelling Up who doesn’t even have the authority to sign off on a park bench.
“Is it true that this decision by the Treasury was prompted by unauthorised spending commitments made by the Secretary of State at the Convention for the North to spend money on improving appalling housing standards after the desperate death of a two-year-old boy in Rochdale?
“I understand the Secretary of State is in Rochdale today. How can he possibly tell housing associations to sort themselves out if he can’t sort out his own department?
“We deserve to know whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer believes that a Secretary of State who is finally, belatedly, spending money on housing standards is a Secretary of State who has gone rogue, because that would be a very serious thing indeed.”
Mr Rowley confirmed said Treasury sign off on capital spending will not impact the department’s agenda or ambitions.
Mr Gove today told the M.E.N that Andy Burnham will be involved in deciding where the £15m committed to Greater Manchester will be spent and how.
“That's the approach that I think is right - that central government works with the mayor, the mayor works with local councils. We're all on the same team when it comes to helping,” he said.
He rebuffed claims of a ‘rogue’ spending commitment and said the Treasury ‘absolutely back the allocation of that money’. "The Treasury wants to make sure that all government departments spend their money in the right way," he said.
"But that money is safe, secure, will be spent on the front line and there will be future spending commitments that we will be making as well to help people - not just in the North West, but to make sure that we help people in social housing across the country."
'We demand affordable rent. Nancy earns £260k'
The sight of banners being hung from university buildings has become all too common over the last couple of years.
A number of protests centering on Covid lockdown measures took place at both the University of Manchester (UoM) and Manchester Metropolitan University during the pandemic.
During one incident in November 2020, furious students - who branded UoM student accommodation ‘HMP Fallowfield’ - tore down ‘lockdown fencing’ during a protest against the uni's decision to ‘pen them in’ during the pandemic.
A few days later, the ‘UoM Rent Strike’ group of around 15 students occupied Owens Park tower in protest at being told to pay full rental fees during a term when they were locked down and told to work from home.
During that protest, another group called Student Action for a Fair Educated Response, started an on-campus protest calling for a reduction in tuition fees. Their anger was compounded by a row over the ‘heavy handed’ police response.
And things were further complicated when UoM vice-chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell went on Newsnight and falsely claimed she had contacted an alleged victim of a racial profiling incident on campus. She later apologised.
Two years on from that turbulent period the row over rent rumbles on.
Solicitors representing 1,222 current and former undergraduate and graduate students wrote to Dame Nancy last November proposing action against the university. They claimed the university breached the terms of its agreements with students to provide in-person tuition and appropriate facilities to support their learning during four academic years.
And today, UoM students have occupied the engineering building, the Samuel Alexander building and the 'high security' senior management John Owens building as part of an ongoing rent strike.
Students want the university to offer a 30 per cent cut on monthly payments and to refund some fees already paid. Last month students said some have had to rely on food banks and get full-time jobs in order to make ends meet.
The occupations coincide with the first day of UCU strikes which will see more than 70,000 university staff walk out.
The university says the health and safety of those occupying the buildings is the ‘primary concern’ and are monitoring the situation.
‘24/7 party/club zombie liquor saturated’
Remember last week when a Fallowfield resident accused bosses of a Go Local convenience store of ‘cynically’ trying to ‘exploit’ the ‘get down 24/7 party-club atmosphere’ in the south Manchester suburb?
Well Nick Roberts has now reacted after Kwik E Mart was granted an alcohol licence by Manchester Council.
"It beggars belief that this licence application has been granted. Just another cynical, uncaring, feckless outfit, quick to exploit the get down 24/7 party/club zombie liquor saturated wallets and purses that totter around the M14 streets feeding off this toxic malaise," he said.
The shop, which is set to be rebranded as a Go Local, has been opening until 3am but will now have to shut at midnight, selling alcohol until it closes. Nick was among residents who objected to the licence at a public hearing last week, telling councillors the Fallowfield Brow area has become a 'giant noise fest'.
Sarah Clover, representing the premises, refuted those claims and said refusing the national brand's new store an alcohol licence would not offer a solution to the problems.
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Weather etc
- Temperatures: Cloudy changing to light rain in the afternoon. 10C.
- Road closures: One lane closed due to carriageway repairs on M56 in both directions between J7 A556 Chester Road ( Bowdon ) and J5 (Manchester Airport) until February 18.
- A5067 Chorlton Road inbound closed due to water main work between Jackson Crescent and A57(M) Mancunian Way Chester Road Roundabout until February 10.
- Trivia question: Manchester's Chinatown is the second largest in the UK - where is the biggest?
Manchester headlines
Market: A food market inspired by Mackie Mayor and Hatch is set to open on the site of a derelict mechanics on Bury New Road. Planning permission has been granted for the venue in Salford, which will also include a rooftop shisha bar. It's located on a former Lexus garage, next to a Tim Horton's drive-thru, at the junction of Appian Way. The ground floor will have 10 food stalls, with space for around 200 diners.
HS2: A town hall’s opposition to HS2 plans to cut off Ashton from the Metrolink for years is to be heard before a Parliamentary select committee. A petition backed by Tameside full council was submitted in August last year to the House of Commons opposing the plans within the hybrid High Speed Rail between Crewe and Manchester bill. As it stands, tram services on the Ashton-under-Lyne to Eccles route would be suspended during the construction period while ‘Metrolink realignment works’ are carried out to allow for completion of the station concourse and fit-out works. There would be a temporary track and ‘turn back’ created at Piccadilly for a period of two years until the new Piccadilly Metrolink stop is fully functional. The executive cabinet has now agreed to allocate up to £50,000 to support the petition, including getting professional and technical advice for the hearing. More here.
‘Mayhem’: A fed-up couple claim they have been battling school-run 'mayhem' for nearly 40 years. Pauline and Terry Thomas said parents block their driveways during drop-off and pick-up times in Blackley. Pauline told the MEN she has to confront motorists who park on yellow zig-zag lines outside her home to protect children in Boothroyden Road. She was once trapped behind her gates as she battled to get a taxi to her hospital appointment and said the school run 'ruled her life'. More here.
- Development: Houses are set to be built on various plots of land around the Bradshawgate area of Bolton with a developer pledging to ‘re-write the rules’ on town centre living. Manchester-based developers Capital & Centric plans to create ‘Neighbourhood Bolton’ and is bringing forward plans for the first few areas on 6.2 acres of brownfield sites in and around Bradshawgate. The developers said that split across several plots, Neighbourhood Bolton would regenerate the area around the town’s train and bus stations. It’s the firm’s second collaboration with Bolton Council, with work on the the 97 apartment-led Farnworth Green already underway. More here.
Worth a read
One of Manchester's best chefs recently told food writer Ben Arnold the BBQ chicken bones at Chinatown’s Mr Hong’s are ‘the best £2 you can spend on food in Manchester’.
“Oh, and make sure you get the blue menu,” he added. “They might fob you off with the red one.”
So Ben and his lad obliged and were blown away by the range of dishes available during a visit to the Faulkner Street restaurant, just before Chinese New Year.
“Where else in town can you get bullfrog in various forms, from stewed to roasted, not to mention rabbit legs rubbed with spice, skewered and barbecued over coals,” Ben writes. “I can’t think of a single other spot offering such breadth of the animal kingdom on its menu.
“That’s not to say it’s all nose-to-tail eating, so those feeling a bit snout-averse need not fear. For every pork tripe, cow heart or pig’s ear, there is a simply steamed piece of bass with ginger, or prawns fried with garlic and dried chillies.”
You can read his full review 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: London
