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Here's today's Mancunian Way:
By Damon Wilkinson, Thursday June 30
Hello and welcome
Driven out of the city centre by an array of by-laws and deterrents, Manchester's boarders have taken matters into their own hands by building their own skate park on the site of a derelict shopping centre in Ancoats.
In today's Mancunian Way we'll be taking a look at what the future holds for this DIY set-up and what the skateboarding ban says about a city that often prides itself on its progressive and inclusive outlook.
Elsewhere we'll also be comparing the price of a Tesco big shop with the same items from six months ago to see exactly how the cost-of-living crisis is hitting our wallets.
And we'll also hear how city leaders hope to ban taxis not licensed locally from operating in Greater Manchester in a bid to improve air quality and drive up standards.
'No other place to go'
A large derelict plot right on the edge of the city centre, the old Central Retail Park in Ancoats is a prime bit of real estate. But, for the time being at least, it's not Fred Done, Urban Splash or any of the other big developers that have got their hands on it, but a group of young skateboarders who have reclaimed it for their own interests.
Driven out of places such as Lincoln Square and Cathedral Gardens by a city centre ban, the boarders have spent the last three months building ramps, banks and obstacles on the old retail park. It feels like exactly the kind of grassroots, DIY movement a young, forward-looking city like ours should be encouraging.
But skater Patrick O’Donohoe says they've only set up shop there because there’s ‘no other place to go’. “Everybody is fed up with the council. They don’t bother us here,” he said.
“There are two indoor places which are £8 for two hours. Platt Fields has space but the wood can be run down and the screws are sticking out.
"There’s a park in Trafford, too, but that’s small. 10 people is too many."
It's far from the first time skaters have clashed with the powers-that-be. In 2020 Paul Harrison, who owns Northern Quarter skate shop Black Sheep, hit out after a sudden clampdown on skating in Cathedral Gardens saw dozens of 'skate stoppers', metal ridges and studs sunk into the edges of street furniture.
"We are supposed to be a progressive city," said Paul at the time. "To be so regressive and authoritarian is just a bit sad. That's not what Manchester is about."
Skateboarding has been banned in the city centre since 2000. Theoretically anyone caught breaking the by-law could face a £500 fine. But in reality, unless they were causing trouble, the authorities had long turned a blind eye to skaters.
However in the last couple of years that seems to have changed, with the town hall taking a more zealous approach to policing the ban.
So what's going to happen next? As you probably imagined the old retail park is earmarked for development, so the skateboarders won't be around forever.
For the council's part they say they're willing to 'engage' with skaters, but add that 'ensuring that public spaces are welcoming and safe is important'.
But Dan O'Donohoe and his pals just want somewhere they can do the thing they love. “It’s always been an outcast thing but it is not the same thing as a destructive thing," he says.
Absolutely trollied
Life is a pretty expensive business at the minute. But if, like me, you're not the most fastidious of budgeters it can be hard to pinpoint exactly where your money's going.
Here to help out is parents writer Emma Gill who has been conducting an ongoing experiment to compare the price of her weekly shop at Tesco - and the results make for fascinating, if sobering, reading.
The exact same trolley of items has gone from £93.65 to £105.22 in just six months - that's a difference of £11.57 or a 12.3% leap. Of the 63 products Emma bought, 44 cost more than they did on December 15, 2021, 18 cost the same and only one cost less.
And when you drill down into the cost of individual items it becomes apparent there's been some pretty drastic price hikes. Corn on the cob is up from 95p to £1.29; a 400g block of cheese has gone from £2 to £2.50; cheese and chive dip is up from 79p to £1.20; and wheat biscuits - Tesco's version of Weetabix - are up from 97p to £1.50, that's a staggering 54% rise.
Emma says she was 'shocked' by the comparison. But with inflation at a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent, with the war in Ukraine raging on and as we continue to deal with the fall-out of Brexit and covid there's no sign of prices falling any time soon.
Taxi ban?
Cabs not licensed locally should be banned in Greater Manchester in a bid to reduce pollution and drive up standards. That's the suggestion being put forward by the city-region as it seeks more devolution powers from government.
It's all part of the ongoing row about GM's Clean Air Zone. Under the proposals the region's 10 councils want to introduce joint minimum licensing standards for all taxis and private hire vehicles.
This would also include frequent criminal record checks for drivers, English language tests and create a common colour for all local taxis.
While the CAZ plans might be currently stuck in a jam, it seems GM leaders want to get at least part of their plans on the move again. More here.
Weather, etc
Friday: Cloudy with some showers by late morning. 19C.
Pollen count: High
Roads: They'll be road closures around Ancoats and the Northern Quarter from 1.15pm to around 6pm on Sunday for the Madonna Del Rosario parade
Today's Manc trivia question: Which Oscar-winning actress stood for election in the Moss Side by-election of 1978?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
'Two years of unprocessed grief'
On the day Downing Street staff held a 'bring your own booze' garden party Hannah Brady was registering her dad Shaun's death. The 55-year-old, a key worker at the Heinz factory in Wigan, died alone in hospital on May 16, 2020, after contracting coronavirus.
Since then Hannah has thrown herself into campaigning for a public inquiry into the UK's handling of covid, as a leading light in the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Group
Writing in today's Guardian, she tells of her 'enormous sense of relief' at the news the inquiry has finally been launched. But she admits the campaign means she has 'two years of unprocessed grief' to deal with.
"I haven’t been able to come to terms with my dad’s death," she writes. "I’m bracing myself to learn that there were huge mistakes made at the start of the pandemic that cost him his life. If I grieve my dad now, I’ll have to reopen those wounds that will have been very carefully sewn shut."
Let's hope that for Hannah, and the thousands of other families with similar unanswered questions, the inquiry provides the answers they seek, despite how painful it might prove to be.
On the fringe
After a two-year covid-enforced absence the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival returns tomorrow - and it looks chockful of exciting stuff.
More than 100 productions, including drama, comedy, music, children’s shows, arts and walking tours are being held during the month-long festival, at venues such as Frog & Bucket, Whitefield Garrick Theatre, GM Police Museum and The Kings Arms.
Over the years the fringe has been a launchpad for some of the north west's best new performers and writers. Jenna Campbell has everything you need to know here.
Deportation call
Andy Burnham has called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to step in and deport three members of the Rochdale grooming gang.
The Greater Manchester mayor spoke out after it emerged that one member of the gang had swerved deportation and two others were still fighting to remain after renouncing their Pakistan citizenship.
On Monday, it emerged Abdul Aziz, 51, referred to by the gang as Master Aziz, was told by the Home Office that despite losing an appeal depriving him of UK citizenship in 2018 he would not in fact lose his citizenship and was allowed to remain in the UK.
John Scheerhout reports how the father of one of the girls to be abused by the gang - the prosecution's main witness in the 2012 trial which ended with nine men being convicted - has slammed the decision to allow Aziz to remain.
Mayor Burnham and his deputy Beverley Hughes said in a statement: "Victims have been forgotten in all this and we are appalled that the Home Secretary, who has had years to do right by them, has so far failed to deport."
Manchester headlines
CCTV appeal: Police have launched a CCTV appeal after a man was left fighting for his life in hospital after being attacked in Manchester city centre. The 62-year-old victim was found unconscious on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter. Read more.
Stranded: Passengers trying to fly to Manchester Airport were forced to fork out hundreds of Euros after being left stranded in Prague. As many as 120 people were stuck in the Czech capital after their Ryanair flight left without them, some passengers claimed.
Inquest: Wythenshawe H ospital staff caring for an 18-month-old baby boy who died after he caught a virus could have raised his deteriorating condition with senior doctors sooner and the cardiac arrest he suffered may have been avoided, an inquest has heard. More here
When the car was king
It's hard to imagine now, but St Ann's Square was once dominated by traffic, as this car-clogged pic from 1975 shows. Vehicles were banished from the square in the early 80s, helping to kickstart the gradual pedestrianisation of the city centre that continues, albeit slowly, to this day.
Worth a read
If you're planning on a day trip this weekend, you could do worse than the pretty Peak District town of Cromford. With its stunning riverside location, great walks and, perhaps most importantly, 'the best pie and chips', it's just an hour's drive from Manchester. Alexandra Bullard and Paige Oldfield have all the details.
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 damon.wilkinson@menmedia.co.uk
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The answer to today’s trivia question, Vanessa Redgrave, who just two months earlier had won a best supporting actress Oscar for the film Julia, represented the Workers Revolutionary Party in the 1978 Moss Side by-election, but gained less than 400 votes, losing out to Labour's George Morton
