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Night & Day café has been in the Northern Quarter since before there even was a Northern Quarter. And, like many of the area’s longest-serving residents, it’s partly responsible for much of the charm associated with the hipster haven.
So you can understand why supporters - including Elbow’s Guy Garvey - have been quick to speak up against a noise abatement order that has been served on the venue. The neighbours, however, have another point of view.
We’ll be discussing that story, as well as the situation on the trains and a spooky world record attempt, in today’s newsletter.
Bill-to-bill balancing act
Bosses from Manchester’s Night & Day Cafe are set to appeal a noise abatement notice in court.
The row over noise complaints at the iconic music venue has been bubbling away since last November when Manchester Council first served the notice.
Bosses at the Oldham Street cafe say documents relating to soundproofing of the next-door apartments were not submitted during the planning stages and sound-proofing work was not completed when the building was turned into a residential dwelling more than 20 years ago.
The council denies this and says complaints from three local residents relate to ‘very loud music played into the early hours of the morning and not live band performances’.
“The council is, and remains, supportive of the music scene in Manchester which Night and Day has championed, but we have to comply with our duties in respect of statutory nuisance,” they said in a statement.
Bar owners are set to appeal the notice in court on November 27.
A petition calling for the notice to be removed has so far garnered more than 80,000 signatures and is being supported by a slew of musicians, including Elbow frontman Guy Garvey.
He has described the council notice as ‘a shameful disgrace’ and says the venue has taken ‘hundreds’ of Manchester artists ‘from bedrooms and garages to the world stage’.
”The vibrant scene started by Night & Day triggered enormous redevelopment in what we now call the Northern Quarter and making all this happen is a constant bill to bill balancing act. That this cornerstone of our city’s culture is under attack again is bewildering,” he says.
Night & Day owner Jennifer Smithson told What’s on writer Ben Arnold the first complaint about noise came at 8pm, during a BBC Music Introducing night last year, just as the venue had reopened after the pandemic.
She says a fine, the seizure of sound equipment, or prosecution would ‘in effect’ close the doors.
Jennifer wants the council to cancel the notice and ‘rectify the problem that they originally caused rather than close down a business that’s been the beating heart of the Manchester music scene for decades'.
It’s not the first time Night and Day has been at the centre of a noise row. In 2014, a couple moved out of a neighbouring property after claiming loud music at the cafe was ‘damaging their health’.
Bosses were ordered to attend a licensing hearing after experts visited nearby apartments with noise-measuring equipment.
The venue kept its live music licence despite repeatedly breaching a noise abatement notice, but owners were told to meet with residents every three months, give them a contact number for the venue and to keep a complaints book.
At the time, the cafe’s solicitor claimed it was a victim of a ‘flawed’ council report produced when residential buildings around the venue were built.
Shambles
Northern mayors are meeting today to discuss the 'shambles' of rail services 'inflicting misery on millions of people' across the north west and Greater Manchester.
The emergency meeting - called by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin - follows weeks of disruption on TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast and Northern trains.
As Paul Britton reports, mayors Andy Burnham, Ms Brabin, Steve Rotheram, Jamie Driscoll and Oliver Coppard are expected to make a direct plea to the new Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, claiming the situation is creating a direct challenge to regional economies.
TransPennine Express cancelled 55 trains in one day last week, with the Labour Party claiming more than 40 services were cancelled on Tuesday and more than 60 on Wednesday. Today, its website displayed 52 cancelled services - many affecting Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
The under-fire operator has cancelled hundreds of services in recent weeks due to staffing issues after the implementation of an emergency timetable. Passengers travelling between Manchester and Liverpool and Leeds have been hit badly by delays.
Mr Burnham has called for an urgent cash injection from the Government for TransPennine Express and Northern.
A terrible shock
Police are continuing to investigate the murder of a 19-year-old student, killed in a 'random attack' in Fallowfield.
The young man, who was studying at Manchester Metropolitan University, was found with stab wounds on Wilmslow Road at 2am on Wednesday. He was taken to hospital where he later died.
He was tonight named as Luke O'Connor.
It is understood he was attacked by someone he did not know while on his way home from a house party.
The university has offered thoughts to the family and friends of the victim, Nicole Wootton-Cane reports. “This will be a terrible shock to our whole community and we will be arranging for professionally trained counselling staff to support any students and staff who are affected by the incident,” a spokesperson said.
Suspended justice
Two members of the Rochdale grooming gang have lost their appeal against deportation from the UK.
Adil Khan, 51, and Abdul Rauf, 52, were among nine gang members jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of child sex offences in Rochdale.
Khan was sentenced to eight years in 2012 and released on licence four years later.
Rauf was jailed for six years and released in November 2014 after serving two years and six months of his sentence.
Both men were told they would be sent back to Pakistan following their release from jail. However, both fought a long, seven-year legal battle against deportation on the grounds that deportation would interfere with their human rights, mounting multiple legal challenges and appeals.
An Immigration Tribunal hearing was held earlier this year, where both men issued pleas to stay in the UK. Immigration judges ruled against their appeal in August and the decision was released publicly on Wednesday.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and deputy mayor Bev Hughes welcomed the decision but said it follows ‘too many years of long legal battles and suspended justice for the victims’.
They say the Home Office’s failure to inform them of the developments in the case showed ‘a flagrant disregard for the local communities who remained deeply affected and distressed by this postponement of justice’.
“This is now the second appeal that they have lost against deportation. There is no question that it must be the last,” they said in a joint statement.
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Weather etc
- Friday: Light showers changing to cloudy by lunchtime. 17C.
- Road closures: A665 Bolton Road in both directions closed due to resurfacing work between Wordsworth Avenue and Unsworth Street until November 4.
- A575 Walkden Road Southbound closed due to gas main work from Mesne Lea Road to Kingsway until November 6.
- A560 Gatley Road in both directions closed due to water main work between Wensley Road and Warren Avenue until November 4.
- A665 Devonshire Street Northbound closed due to gas main work from A6 Stockport Road to Hellidon Close until November 4.
- Trains: Special timetable operating on TransPennine Express and Avanti West Coast due to shortage of train crews.
- Trams: Revised service on Manchester Metrolink due to overrunning 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.
- Trivia question: Which singer was made an honorary Mancunian citizen in 2017?
Manchester headlines
Pressures: Greater Manchester Integrated Care says pressure from already high levels of bed occupancy and the large number of people presenting to A&E across the region continues to be worsened by reported delays in discharging people who are well enough to leave to go home or into community services. More here.
Counterfeit Street: Twenty tonnes of fake clothing was seized by police as officers began a drive to demolish Manchester's Counterfeit Street. Two lorryloads of fake T-shirts; jackets; and trainers, were seized. There were even piles of the famous yellow Selfridges bags recovered, meant for customers to carry their dodgy purchases in. The region's new Chief Constable, Stephen Watson, has ordered that a cluster of shops at the bottom of Bury New Road near the city centre should be flattened as it is a nest of criminality.
Venue: Boxer Amir Khan will finish constructing his luxury wedding venue in Bolton after years of delays. Khan previously unveiled grand plans for the project, but it was never completed. According to Insider Media, the venue - which is set to create 200 jobs - is due for completion later this year. It is reported that Khan worked with Manchester-based Seed Architects on the project.
New homes: Residents are being asked for views on plans for a new housing development at Trafford Waters. The scheme on Redclyffe Road at Peel L&P’s development is being put forward by Trafford Housing Trust (THT) and comprises 83 apartments on the side of the Manchester Ship Canal. The intention is to deliver one and two-bedroom homes for shared ownership, subject to approval from Homes England for grant funding. More here.
Take it in the spirit it was intended
If you see hundreds of people dressed as ghosts in Platt Fields Park this weekend, please do not be alarmed. And don’t call a priest.
It will simply be participants gathered to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of people dressed as ghosts. You heard me.
Paranormal Rescue - a charity which has organised the event to raise money for Greyhound Gap - want participants to turn up with a white sheet with eye holes in it. They say the whole event will take no more than an hour.
And they have kindly taken the predictably drizzly Mancunian weather into account, agreeing that ghost costumes can be worn over raincoats if necessary.
Organiser Dr Brian Sterling-Vete - who has staged 13 world record events - and his partner Helen Renée will be there with their greyhound, Bond - Manchester’s equivalent to Scooby-Doo.
The event starts at 11am on Saturday (October 29). Those interested are encouraged to book via the Eventbrite page.
Worth a read
Emma Tse and Dom Thorp moved 200 miles to Manchester to find the home of their dreams.
The couple previously lived in Bristol but found the city so unaffordable, they decided to make the move up north. “We looked around all the new build areas that seemed to be along the East Lancs before deciding on Worsley," Emma told property writer Phoebe Jobling.
The couple bought a three-bed property for £245,000 with a mortgage of around £900 a month last year. “What we’re paying for our mortgage now is pretty similar to what we paid for our rent in Bristol, so we knew we could afford it," Emma says.
This piece is part of the M.E.N’s Where I Live series, which takes readers inside a different home in the north each week.
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: Ariana Grande.
