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It looks like the days of rocking up to a train station and buying a ticket from someone behind the counter are long gone. That’s because train companies have announced plans to close hundreds of ticket offices in England over the next three years.
There was certainly a romance to rail travel in the past that has since been superseded by anger from passengers who have faced repeat delays, cancellations and sad-looking train sandwiches. This latest decision also has major implications for disabled and older people.
We’ll be discussing that in today’s newsletter, as well as Gary Neville's ‘huge mistake’ over his St Michael's development and Manchester’s new ‘beach’. Let’s begin.
‘It’s illegal’
Andy Burnham hasn’t minced his words over the decision to close hundreds of railway ticket offices across the country - including 50 in Greater Manchester. In fact, he says it could be ‘illegal’.
The Greater Manchester mayor says operators - who are carrying out a 21-day public consultation - and one in particular, have not assessed the impact the proposal would have on older and disabled people.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People says research shows just 3 per cent of people with sight loss said they could use a ticket vending machine without problems and 58 per cent said it was impossible.
Mr Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester he will write to the Transport Secretary calling for the consultation to be halted. "The provisional advice I've got is that the train operators, one of them in particular, should have done, again, a provisional equality impact assessment. Particularly for the impact on older people or disabled people who will probably be the most impacted by this decision. They didn't do it,” he said.
The Labour mayor said closures would 'further destroy the already threadbare trust in train services across the north of England' and argued that ticket office staff provide advice for passengers, reassurance for older people and help for disabled people at train stations, reports Joseph Timan.
"This is really wrong on so many levels – but we're going to take a stand. I will be writing to the transport secretary today and I think it is likely, in my view, that there's a strong case that this process is not legal,” he said.
The ticket office at Horwich Parkway - which is already controlled by Transport for Greater Manchester - will not be closing as part of the proposal. The mayor said if he cannot stop the government and train companies closing ticket offices, he would be making the case again for stations in the city-region to be run by TfGM.
Rail Delivery Group say just 12 per cent of tickets were sold at ticket offices last year with the rest bought online or from vending machines. While the Department for Transport say the changes are about ‘getting staff out from behind ticket office screens and into more active, customer-facing roles that will allow them to better support all passengers’.
But some passengers have expressed dismay at the proposal. “I go to the ticket office personally,” passenger Phil Wilks told reporter George Lythgoe at Stockport station. “It is because of human interaction and it is more trustworthy than online. It is easier to just go there and pick up a ticket. Sometimes you even have to queue up for the office so it is still used. They still serve a purpose.”
Gerald Leach, 89, returning from a meeting of train enthusiasts, says ticket office staff often provide 'more than just the sales of tickets'. "It is the human brain vs the computer because the online system is programmed to tell you one way of doing a journey,” he says. He believes rail companies could lose money as a result of the plan: "It could encourage people not to pay the fare,” he suggests. “I might be wrong but I was discussing it yesterday - that on short haul trips it could lead to them losing money.”
However Zoe Merchant says she always buys her train tickets online. “As long as there is a plan in place for those who depend on the offices, I think the decision is fine,” she says.
'A huge mistake'
Gary Neville's development firm has revealed further details about the £400m St Michael's project, off Deansgate. As North West Business editor Jon Robinson reports, hundreds of new homes, a five-star hotel, a public square, offices and a roof-top restaurant are on the way.
The £150m phase one - No 1 St Michael's - will see nine floors of office space built, Relentless Developments and stakeholders KKR, Salboy and Manchester council say. Global restaurant brand Chotto Matte will occupy the rooftop, with two food and drink outlets on the ground floor. The Japanese and Peruvian cuisine restaurant currently has just five locations - in Soho and Marylebone, Miami, Toronto and Doha.
The £250m phase two - No 2 St Michael's - will see a 41-storey tower built with a 162-bed, five-star hotel. There will also be 217 apartments and 75,000 sq ft of office space and international law firms Pinsent Masons and Hill Dickinson have signed deals to take up space.
Construction of the 41-storey tower is set to start in the coming weeks. Apartment sales will start after the summer. The whole project is due to finish in early 2027.
This week, former Manchester United star Neville admitted he had made a ‘huge mistake’ after initially earmarking the historic Sir Ralph Abercromby pub and part of the former Bootle Street police station for demolition as part of the development.
A u-turn came after a public backlash and Neville says he takes 'full responsibility' for the initial planning issues. "I don't know why or how I was thinking that at the time,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money. "I love old buildings, I have always renovated old buildings, the idea that we looked at that pub and the front of Bootle Street police station and thought we should knock it down, that was a huge mistake."
‘Centre Court View Puzzle’
Mancunian musician Simon Milner-Edwards was one of two Just Stop Oil protesters who were arrested after disrupting Wimbledon yesterday. Along with Deborah Wilde he threw orange-coloured confetti and jigsaw pieces on Court 18 during a match between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro.
The jigsaw pieces were thrown from a Wimbledon-branded box labelled: “Centre Court View Puzzle”.
Organisers announced on Twitter that the pair were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage. The Metropolitan Police said yesterday a man and a woman were in custody after the incident.
Mr Milner-Edwards, 66, said: “I’m not prepared to let our politicians wreck everything and leave the next generation to pick up the pieces. The last thing I want to do is spoil people’s enjoyment of Wimbledon, but right now, on Centre Court, it’s humanity versus oil and gas – and the umpire is getting every call wrong. How long are we going to take this before we see a McEnroe-level meltdown?”
Former officer could face criminal charges
A now-retired former senior police officer who played a pivotal role on the night of the Manchester Arena terror bombing could face criminal charges, a watchdog has revealed.
Dale Sexton, then a chief inspector, was Greater Manchester Police's Force Duty Officer (FDO) - a key position in terms of command and communications.
Paul Britton reports that the Independent Office for Police Conduct has said it would be referring a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to 'the actions of a former GMP officer when providing information to various reviews' held following the bombing, in which 22 people were killed in May, 2017, after an Ariana Grande concert. The Manchester Evening News understands a file is currently being prepared and hasn't yet been submitted to the CPS.
An earlier decision by the IOPC found there was insufficient evidence to indicate Mr Sexton may have breached standards of professional behaviour or committed a criminal offence. More here.
Greed-flation
With interest rates on the rise, households are under increasing pressure as the cost of mortgages, debt and rent increases with them.
Reporter Maisie Lawton has been speaking to people in Eccles about how they are managing through the cost of living crisis. There she spoke to Gavin Albiston, who says he has seen families stand weighing up essential foods in shopping aisles.
“People making an honest living can’t afford to feed themselves,” he says. “My partner works with volunteering charities and she’s heard some horror stories. You can see the misery in people here, it follows them.”
Dave Page meanwhile, says essential foods are ‘being used as a tool at our expense’. “Myself and my wife work, we care for our daughter who’s disabled and help our parents-in-law, and we’re having to weigh over foods like bread and milk. It's a volatile environment for people. These superstores think we’re naïve as inflation is used as a tool against us, it’s frustrating and upsetting,” he says.
“Prices haven’t gone up by pennies but pounds," pensioner James McDermott said. "It does feel like there’s a greed-flation and it’s the customers who are suffering for it.”
You can read the full piece here.
School protest over LGBT material
Parents opposed to LGBT material being shown to their children staged a protest outside Birchfields Primary School on Tuesday. Around 100 people demonstrated outside the Fallowfield primary with some chanting 'shame on you' and 'too much, too soon'.
Some attendees were not associated with the school, but were there to 'marshall' the protest, Joseph Timan reports. One organiser - a parent of four children at the school - has been banned from entering its grounds. He denies allegations his behaviour towards school staff has been threatening and intimidating.
Hundreds of children were kept off school for four days over the last few weeks in a 'strike' over content in the curriculum. During a recent meeting with parents, relationship and sexuality education (RSE) classes were discussed.
Protesters have called for an 'open and honest' conversation about the rest of the curriculum. They have demanded that 'all LGBT material 'is restricted to RSE after a video of a transgender girl was shown to pupils in another lesson last year. The video was later removed from the curriculum.
The school says it does not teach sex education. Manchester Council says they are working with the school and parents to resolve the issues raised.
'Students are losing out'
Teachers are due to strike again tomorrow as the row over pay rumbles on.
Education unions have rejected an offer of a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year and an average 4.5 per cent rise for staff next year. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claims the walkouts are ‘undermining’ recovery efforts following the pandemic.
Here, Chorlton High School teacher Steven Longden explains why the action is necessary. He says years of budget cuts have resulted in schools being forced to cut vital and essential services that are hindering its students.
"There has been a constant pressure on headteachers to cut back budgets. As teachers, we have also had the cumulative effect of below-inflation pay awards,” he told reporter James Holt. "The combined effect of this has meant we have seen a range of services disappear over that period, from the number of teaching assistants helping us in classrooms, to essential services, particularly in inner city schools, such as counselling for young people, meaning students are losing out and coping less well in the classroom.”
READ MORE: Teachers vow to 'keep on' with strikes after another day of disruption across Greater Manchester
Everything but a beach...until now
Deansgate will be transformed into a seaside venue with sand sculptures and a helter skelter during this year’s Manchester Day.
The annual parade will no longer be taking place, but a range of events and live performances with the theme 'Manchester Day on Holiday' will take place from 9am to 6pm on July 29. Details here.
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Weather etc
Friday: Sunny intervals. 26C.
Road closures: A5066 Silk Street in both directions closed due to water main work between Brocade Close and Flax Street. Until July 7.
Manchester headlines
Baths: Supporters are celebrating the latest phase of restoration at the historic Withington Baths. Built in 1913, it was saved from closure by the Love Withington Baths Group. They have since used a £1m investment from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore the baths to its former glory with the roof and stained-glass windows the main focus of the revamp.
- New homes: Ancoats is set to be transformed once again as work begins 128 new homes. Construction has started on the properties at a disused brownfield site off Rodney Street. This City - the town hall's own development company - is behind the project, which is part of a £32m investment funded by Homes England to build 1,500 homes in the neighbourhood. A third of the homes will be made available at the Manchester Living Rent, which is capped at the government's Local Housing Allowance rate. More here.
Move: Robinsons Brewery is to move from its historic home of nearly 200 years earlier than previously expected. The Stockport family business first revealed its £12m plans to relocate its brewing and head office operations from Lower Hillgate to its packaging centre in Bredbury in January 2022. At the time, the company said it expected to complete the project by 2025. However the brewery's chairman, Philip Moody, has now confirmed the move is due to be completed and operational in the first half of 2024. More here.
Co-op Live: Guests got a first look inside Co-op Live, Manchester’s new multi-million pound music venue next to the Etihad Stadium. It’s on track to host its first events in April and will be the ‘largest’ and ‘most sustainable’ indoor entertainment arena in the UK. As part of the final stage of roof construction, guests were invited to sign the final acoustically treated roof cassette, with their signatures becoming part of the permanent structure. You can see the images here.
Worth a read
When Louie Mulcair lost his job during the pandemic he was able to join his grandfather John Gilbody at Stockport company Belle Vue Manchester.
Louie, 22, started as a valeter and made such a good impression with his enthusiasm and abilities that bosses soon offered him the chance to train as a driver, as Paige Oldfield reports. Having quickly achieved his qualifications, he was assigned to school bus routes and coach trips.
Louie and John, who both live in Stockport, have teamed up for a number of trips, including taking Manchester City fans to Wembley matches, a wedding party to London and charity bike riders to Blackpool.
The proud grandfather, 73, said: “It’s been great when we’ve been paired together on trips, and I get a lot of pleasure from seeing him thriving in his career.”
You can read more about their partnership 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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