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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
Happy St Patrick’s Day! It’s on this day, every year, that I remember the stranger who asked me if I was Irish because I was wearing green. It wasn't even St Patrick's Day.
For the record, I’m not and I don’t wear green every day. I am a tiny bit Welsh, which should be obvious from the bouquet of daffodils I lug around, as insisted upon by the Assembly.
On to the news. We’ll be taking a look at some interesting stats on the richest and poorest neighbourhoods in today’s newsletter. We’ll also be looking at Manchester’s radical plans to tackle healthy inequalities and the ongoing saga at Night & Day. Let’s begin.
Living cheek by jowl
On Monday we spoke about how the ambitions of Manchester’s leaders and thinkers changed the face of the city forever. And perhaps as a consequence, the divide between the rich and poor has never been clearer.
You only have to wander through our city centre to see the most vulnerable living cheek by jowl with the richest in our society. That stark juxtaposition is no longer the preserve of London.
In fact, Manchester has one of the largest income gaps between its neighbourhoods of any local authority in Great Britain.
Households in the city’s richest neighbourhood (Castlefield & Deansgate) earn £35,400 more a year than the poorest (Moss Side West), according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Data journalist David Dubas-Fisher has been looking at the figures and has found that households in the city centre area of Castlefield & Deansgate have an average net annual income of £54,300. That’s how much they are left with after income tax, national insurance, council tax, pension contributions, and child support has been paid. It’s the highest disposable household income of any neighbourhood in Manchester.
Meanwhile, Moss Side West has the lowest disposable household income of any neighbourhood in the city at £18,900 a year.
Only four local authorities in Great Britain have a larger income gap between their richest and poorest neighbourhoods - Tower Hamlets (£38,700), Leicester (£36,400), Nottingham (£36,300), and Southwark (£35,600).
I must say I was surprised to see Collyhurst - once named the most deprived district in England - in the list of richest neighbourhoods. Households in the City Centre North & Collyhurst Middle Layer Super Output Area have an average net annual income of £37,700, according to the ONS data. The inclusion of city centre homes no doubt has an impact on that average, but locals say there has been an influx of wealthier people to Collyhurst in recent years.
Just this week Manchester Council reiterated its commitment to Victoria North - its joint venture with Far East Consortium which will see 15,000 new homes built on the edge of the city centre, including in Collyhurst. The district’s derelict Eastford Square is due to be knocked down within weeks and the council says it is appointing a ‘master planning team’ for future phases of development.
I’ve been chatting with my colleague Tom George about Collyhurst, gentrification and what he calls the ‘fault lines in tectonic plates’ that emerge when different groups end up living so close together. He headed out to Collyhurst yesterday to chat to locals about the plans for the area and heard some anxiety that they may be ‘pushed out’.
You can read his full feature on the Manchester Evening News website tomorrow but for now, here’s a flavour of what he discovered.
Nicola Woods - who has been watching the city's rapidly expanding skyline from her estate - reports a 'divide' has already emerged between her neighbours on Reather Walk and those living on a new-build estate close by, where three-bed properties have been selling for more than £300,000.
"We've never seen so many rich houses," she told Tom. "They're building them everywhere. They stand out like a sore thumb. The people who live in them have obviously got money.
"They've wrecked the community by pulling houses down. Everyone used to know everybody but now you don't even know who your neighbour is.”
Meanwhile, Veronika Latif could not fathom how the data pointed to Collyhurst as a wealthy area. "This is not a rich neighbourhood," she said. "I think it will be eventually. That seems to be the plan but it's mostly council houses at the moment. If you want rich people, go to Didsbury."
Health and wealth inequalities
Despite being a ‘world-class city’, a man born in the most affluent parts of Manchester can expect to live eight years longer than a man born in the most disadvantaged areas. For women, that gap is six years.
Some 42 per cent of children - 46,269 - live in poverty and one in three do not have sufficiently developed speech before starting school. And when they get older, poverty and the ill-health which follows can severely limit their employment opportunities.
Even before the pandemic, the city’s population was already facing a dire outlook - limited lifespan, children living in poverty and too many deaths from serious illnesses. Three years on, those problems have only become more pressing.
It’s statistics like these that have prompted council leader Bev Craig to join forces with NHS partners, social and financial institutions, businesses and voluntary and community groups to launch the 'Making Manchester Fairer' plan to tackle inequality and prevent deaths.
The long list of measures is aimed at tackling sweeping inequality in the city. More than half of the council’s £736.2m revenue budget for 2023/24 will go on helping those most in need with free school meals and activities, extra support for community groups and increased wages.
Health reporter Helena Vesty has been speaking to Coun Craig about the urgent need for change.
“In January of 2020, just before Covid, we were on the verge of declaring a public health emergency because of the city's health inequalities - that gap in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. That still remains the case,” she says.
“People that are experiencing health and wealth inequalities tend to be hit hardest. It shouldn't have come as a surprise with Covid that people in insecure low, low-paid jobs would suffer economically more, that people already who had a number of long-term conditions would suffer more, and that people who faced structural racism and other inequalities would suffer more.
“Collectively as a city, we want to do something on inequalities, want to do something on structural racism, or do something to tackle the health and wealth gaps that are too existent in many of our communities.”
You can read all about the plan here.
Friends in high places
Our mayor is celebrating St Patrick’s Day in the States. He yesterday told American breakfast show Morning Joe that he was delighted to mark the occasion in New York. “St Patrick’s Day in New York, couldn't be better for someone with Irish heritage like me,” he beamed.
But he couldn’t resist mentioning a meeting with the billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg when he was first elected Greater Manchester mayor.
And the love-in continued on Twitter, with Bloomberg commenting: “This is why I love working with mayors like @MayorofGM. You get to see the dedication they have to the cities & people they serve, and watch them build connections to get things done. And every now and then they give you a shout out on @Morning_Joe!”
To which Mr Burnham replied: “Thank you, Mike. It’s the least you deserve for all the support you’ve given us!”
Our mayor has long been friendly with Mr Bloomberg. Back in 2019 he told GQ he had done ‘extraordinary’ things for New York on a range of things, including health. “American mayors have made amazing changes. They’re powerful and they shape their cities. English cities haven’t had the powers to advance themselves,” he said.
“The 21st-century economy will be all about cities. Bloomberg invited me over not long after I was elected. When Trump got in and opted out of the Paris climate agreement, the convention of US mayors opted back in. I believe the power of national government can be undermined by devolved cities.”
If that’s true, Mr Burnham is certainly one step closer following the agreement of Greater Manchester’s Trailblazer deal this week.
The saga continues
If you thought the ongoing drama at Night & Day was over, you’d be wrong.
Bosses of the iconic Northern Quarter music venue will be back in court next week as the latest chapter of the long-running noise complaint saga unfolds.
As Ethan Davies reports, representatives of the venue were at Magistrates Court in January, but proceedings were halted to ‘try and reach an agreement’ between the owners and Manchester City Council - which has served a noise abatement notice. The dispute has arisen following complaints from a neighbouring flat.
But it appears those out-of-court talks have failed to produce a resolution and the two parties will face off on Tuesday. Ahead of the proceedings, owner Jennifer Smithson told Ethan: "We just want to get on with our lives."
‘This stereotypical leprechaun business is just ridiculous’
Student club Cargo was due to feature a dwarf actor playing a leprechaun for its St Patrick’s Day party tonight. But plans have changed after people complained that it was ‘highly offensive’.
Printworks, which houses the Cargo club, also stepped in to have the planned ‘leprechaun meet and greet’ element of the night excluded from tomorrow's night party, as Ben Arnold reports.
Students on a WhatsApp mailing list set up by the party’s promoter, DNA Events Manchester, were sent a message earlier this week with details of the event. They spoke of ‘plenty of Irish hats’ and ‘our own dwarf leprechaun’.
One Salford Uni student told the M.E.N. they have suffered ‘high levels of racism’ and ‘this stereotypical leprechaun business is just ridiculous’. “This kind of casual racism toward Irish people in the community is nothing new, particularly around this time of year,” they said.
Jason Shay, centre director at Printworks, says the event was pulled immediately as bosses ‘strongly felt it went against our values of being inclusive and doing things the right way’.
DNA Events says they have worked with actor Gregory Doherty - who was due to portray the leprechaun - for decades and have the ‘utmost respect for Greg and his profession’. But they said the event has been cancelled after they listened to customers concerns.
Mr Doherty - who has appeared in the Harry Potter movies as well as Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes series - says he is proud to be of Irish descent and does not consider ‘dressing up as a mythical creature offensive or a racial slur against the people of Ireland’. “Of course, I cannot speak for all of the Irish living in Manchester, but I suspect you are listening to a vocal minority,” he said.
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Weather etc
- Saturday: Overcast changing to sunny intervals in the afternoon. 14C.
- Road closures: M67 Eastbound entry slip road closed due to long-term roadworks at J2 St Annes Road (Denton). Until December 1, 2025.
- Trivia question: The main songwriter in Oasis went on to set up which band?
Manchester headlines
Dougie: Tributes are being paid to a Second World War D-Day veteran who 'leaves behind an incredible legacy' after his death at the age of 97. Dougie Farrington landed on Gold Beach in Normandy, France, 19 days after D-Day in June, 1944. He was just 18. Eight months later, as the Allies advanced into Germany, he was shot in the leg by a German sniper in the Reichswald Forest after being separated from the rest of his division. He crawled inside a pigsty, where he put on a field dressing and waited to be rescued. Among his many medals Dougie, from Chadderton, Oldham, was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, the highest French military honour, in recognition of his service to liberate Europe. The Royal British Legion has paid tribute to his 'bubbly and infectious character'. Full story here.
The Coli: The iconic Coliseum Theatre has confirmed with ‘deep sadness’ that it will be closing in two weeks despite a passionate campaign backed by actors and residents to save it. The doors to the historic venue on Fairbottom Street will close to the public for the final time on March 31. It follows the decision by Arts Council England in November to drop the Coliseum from its funding portfolio for the next three years after the body deemed it ‘high risk’, raising concerns about its’ financial management, leadership and governance. The funding cut – which was a third of the income for the Coliseum – meant the financial situation was ‘not sustainable for the current continuation of the business’, theatre chiefs said. More here.
Approved and rejected: A new Lidl planned near a 'busy and dangerous' junction in Chrolton has been knocked back at the town hall. Plans for the new supermarket which have divided opinion locally have been rejected by councillors. Manchester council's planning committee has asked for more road safety measures to be put in place before the proposal is put to another vote. But, councillors on the committee approved three other applications which were also knocked back at a mammoth three-and-a-half-hour meeting last month. They are a retirement living complex in Didsbury, new courts at a tennis club in Didsbury and plans to refurbish and build new student halls in Ardwick. All the details are here.
Coronation: The King's Coronation will be shown on big screens in Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester city centre and in Parliament Square, in Oldham town centre. The Government confirmed the venues as two of more than 30 locations across the country to get big screens, with more expected to be announced in coming weeks. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the announcement would mean thousands of people can come together to watch the historic event. The Coronation of the King and the Queen Consort takes place on Saturday, May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London - where the late Queen was crowned 70 years ago.
Worth a read
I enjoyed this piece about Alastair Tansley - formerly Livesley - who took his wife Phoebe’s surname after their wedding in February.
Phoebe has a 'strong emotional connection' to her surname after losing her parents at a young age. But Al, from South Manchester, said other things bonded him to his family, so made the unusual decision.
He hopes his decision will encourage more men to do the same.
"I love my new name. I have not lost my old identity at all and have gained something new," he says. "So many women must have got married and felt they had to so I thought why wouldn't I go a little bit further? It's a gesture of love and respect to my wife.”
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: High Flying Birds
