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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
by BETH ABBIT - Thurs Aug 11, 2022
Hello,
I’m afraid we begin today’s newsletter with sad news about the death of Danny Collins - Manchester’s first homeless tour guide.
The veteran, who spent years living on the streets, worked with Invisible Manchester to run fantastic walking tours around the city centre. After a long illness, he passed away last month, aged 66.
I was lucky enough to take part in one of his tours a few years ago and it was a very moving and eye-opening experience.
Punctuated with readings of his original poems, Danny’s tours led visitors to the spots where he slept rough and spent much of his time when he was homeless - Central Library, Albert Hall, the Hidden Gem, St Ann’s Church.
During the tour I joined in 2018, we were taken to a spot near Central Library where John Cassidy’s famous statue, ‘Adrift’ stands. Danny explained how a fellow rough sleeper and former accountant ‘fell apart’ when his wife died and ended up on the streets.
“He spent 20 years living on the street. He was a very educated guy and he said to me one day ‘when you wake up in the morning on the street, even the statues are looking down on you’. I thought that was really poignant,” he said.
Former soldier Danny, 66, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the military, which eventually led to him becoming homeless. He moved to Manchester because he didn’t want to be homeless in his native Liverpool. He spent four and a half years living on the streets before finding help from homeless charity The Booth Centre. He spent his first night in his new home on Christmas Eve 2016.
His tour helped visitors understand how easy it can be to fall on hard times and how you can become invisible when dealing with homelessness. The Hidden Gem, officially St Mary’s Catholic Church, was a spot Danny frequented for respite from the streets. He took us there on his tour and hold us about his first visit when he was ‘kitted up’ with his backpack and sleeping bag.
“This lady invited me in and I told her ‘I’m homeless’, she said ‘it doesn’t matter to us’. I sat on the back bench and she brought me a cup of tea. When the sun shines through this glass it’s so inspiring. I sat there and thought ‘how wonderful’,” he said.
Homeless charities plan to hold a memorial for Danny next month. The details are here.
Alice Sparks, who set up the Manchester tours, says Danny could connect with anyone. “He was the perfect first tour guide, a big character, plenty of charm and the gift of the gab. Although, one minor problem was that he could not walk through the streets of Manchester without stopping for a chat. Danny somehow managed to have friends all over.” She adds: “On his tours, Danny taught people about humanity, respect and looking someone in the eyes and saying hello. Such a spectrum of life, all covered by one man.”
The walking tours - which brought some to tears - bring the issues faced by rough sleepers into sharp focus and give a voice to those who are so often spoken about, but not spoken to.
As a tour guide, Danny’s job was to educate us about life on the streets. But more than that, it was to teach people to see the individual by looking beyond their circumstances. At this he was truly gifted.
Weather, etc.
Friday: Sunny. 30C. Amber warning for extreme heat.
Roads closed: Broughton Road in both directions closed for water main work between Pendleton Way and Gloucester Street until August 15.
Trams: No service on Metrolink between Eccles and MediaCityUK due to engineering works until October 21.
Trains: Cancellations across the network on Avanti West Coast.
Today's Manc trivia question: A church nestled on Mulberry Street in Manchester city centre is known as the 'Hidden Gem', but what is it's real name?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
Why should we pay more?
Manchester Airport bosses are cutting the cost of a dedicated waiting area for cabbies - in a bid to curb congestion on Wythenshawe streets. Taxi drivers can use JetParks to wait for fares paying £1 for a hour, £1.50 for two or £2 for three hours.
Those prices have now been halved for the summer holidays, as Charlotte Cox reports, and private hire firms are being contacted about how to use the scheme.
But Anees Shakell, a private hire driver , says the waiting zone should be free. “If the car park was free then taxi drivers would have no need to scatter around Wythenshawe, disturbing the people who live there,” he says.
“I think the airport are being a bit tight. If anything we taxi drivers are helping by clearing people out of the airport. Why should we pay to pick up customers?"
Airport managing director Chris Woodroofe says the scheme aims to cut congestion and bad parking in surrounding suburbs.
Read more: Cowboy parking firms plaguing the streets near Manchester Airport
Lexit
Liz Truss has promised to 'consult the people of Leigh ' over proposals for the town to break away from the control of Wigan Council.
So that’s two official votes for ‘Lexit’ - Ms Truss and Leigh MP James Grundy. He’s been hammering this Lexit thing pretty hard. Boris Johnson was on board, so he was keen to get the support of the Tory leadership frontrunner.
Ms Truss was questioned about the proposal at a hustings in Leigh, broadcast by GB News, last night. Asked by Shelley Guest about the 'phenomenal costs' and a possible council tax rise if Leigh were to go it alone, Ms Truss said Mr Grundy is a ‘passionate advocate’ for ‘the independent republic of Leigh’.
"We do need to look at local government and we do need to make sure it's as local as possible and we do need to make sure people have control over decision-making powers,” she said. Promising to address the issue if she becomes PM, Ms Truss said any ‘mega-authority’ that ‘takes power away from people’ ‘doesn't work’.
Could it be Manchester?
The shortlist of candidate cities to host Eurovision 2023 will be published tomorrow. Will Manchester be on it?
The BBC and the European Broadcasting Union will make the selection based on each city's 'ability to meet the requirements and their responses around capability and experience'. Fingers crossed!
Manchester headlines
Avanti: Andy Burnham, Sadiq Khan and Manchester Council leader Bev Craig say Avanti West Coast’s plans to cut services to and from the capital is ‘completely unacceptable’ at a ‘critical time’ with Manchester Pride and Notting Hill Carnival coming up. In a joint letter to transport secretary Grant Shapps, they ask for an urgent meeting to restore the full timetable. Stockport leaders have done the same and say it will 'severely impact' the town. Avanti has temporarily suspended the sale of tickets and is slashing its timetable to just one service an hour, blaming ‘unofficial strike action’.
Cowed: Rochdale council has been accused of ‘pandering to bullies’ following its decision to drop a drag queen book reading event. Sessions up and down the country have seen angry protests from people claiming they were harmful to children. Coun Andy Kelly, leader of Rochdale’s Lib Dem group, says bosses should not have been cowed. “Any threats of violence is just bullying and needs dealing with for what it is. Cancelling panders to those bullies,” he says.
New rules: A parent says a policy forcing girls to wear 'plain black tights' whenever they wear a skirt at Ashton on Mersey Academy is 'sexist' and 'unhygienic.' Bosses at the school in Sale say the uniform policy will be relaxed during high temperatures, but one mum says it is ‘ridiculous’. She says her daughter was told socks would be banned due to them 'sexualising' girls’ legs. "Personally I think it's sexist and if part of their reasoning is that the boys issues contribute to it then it's the boys who need educating." More here.
Beneath the gob and bottles
Gig-goers heading to The Electric Circus, in Collyhurst, would 'run the gauntlet' both getting there and once inside, according to this piece by Lee Grimsditch. The lost venue once hosted the Sex Pistols and they are said to have played 'under a hail of gob and bottles'.
A "seminal venue for punk rock in the 1970s", Manchester photographer Kevin Cummins describes it as a ‘khazi’ adding: "everything was painted black so you couldn't see how s****y it was."
Worth a read
The tragic case of Graham Mansfield, the pensioner convicted last month of killing his wife in a suicide pact at their home in Hale, has reopened the debate about assisted dying.
Mr Mansfield, who was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter after slitting his terminally ill wife Dyanne's throat, has called for a change in the law on euthanasia. Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, has explained why he believes the Mansfields' case highlights the 'desperate need' to reform euthanasia laws in the UK.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me, the next edition of the Mancunian Way will be with you around the same time tomorrow. If you have any stories you would like us to feature or look into, please contact me at beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk
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The answer to today’s trivia question, the real name of the church in Manchester city centre known as the 'Hidden Gem', is St Mary’s Catholic Church.
