Read the Mancunian Way newsletter for Thursday July 28, 2022
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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
by BETH ABBIT – Thurs July 28, 2022
Hello and welcome,
If you’ve been to the city centre in recent days you’ll have noticed the big concrete blocks peppering part of the Northern Quarter. Meanwhile there are plans for a whopping great skyscraper off Great Ancoats Street and to pedestrianise Stevenson Square.
We’ll be discussing all that, and the promise to reinstate Northern Powerhouse Rail, in today’s newsletter.
Things are looking quite different in the Northern Quarter after the council placed large concrete blocks along parts of bustling Thomas Street. Pedestrians and cyclists have been calling for various streets to be blocked off to traffic since the pandemic began – but critics say this cycling scheme is not right.
The street has been closed off to traffic with one half designated for outdoor seating and the rest for cyclists. But limited pavement space means the road is often filled with pedestrians. There have also been reports of cars getting stuck – though measures are now in place to stop this.
Harry Gray, of Walk Ride GM, says the strategy is ‘completely flawed’. "This pits cyclists against pedestrians by putting both on a tight road which doesn't help anybody,” he told reporter Lyell Tweed. "The huge concrete blocks are ridiculous, they're blocking nearly half of the road when the whole point of this is to open up space.” Manchester Council said the project needs time to ‘bed in’.
Just a hop, skip and a jump away, planners hope to permanently pedestrianise Stevenson Square. It’s been closed to traffic since 2020 and the council now proposes having three-quarters of the square for pedestrian use with an area for buses and a cycle lane, as Ethan Davies reports.
The city is changing all the time, and not just on our streets and highways. Work on the new Manchester College and UCEN Manchester education campus has just been completed, meaning City Campus Manchester will open in September.
Meanwhile, Select Property Group have put forward revamped plans for a 33-storey skyscraper off Great Ancoats Street. They have agreed to remove one floor after initial plans were rejected twice for being ‘too tall’. As Joseph Timan reports, the latest plans could be approved this week. But the Royal Mills Residents' Association say taking one storey off ‘doesn't cut it at all’ and the fact a shadow would be cast across a school when kids leave is 'an absolute abomination'.
Detectives are said to be exploring the possibility that human trafficking played a part in the Oldham mill tragedy.
Human remains were discovered by demolition workers at the Bismark House Mill on Saturday – more than two months after a huge fire at the site. Police say their investigations suggest ‘at least two people were in the mill during the fire’.
The force was contacted 'via Vietnam' two days before the sad discovery with a report that four Vietnamese nationals were missing and may have been involved in a fire. Assistant chaplain, Father Anthony Nguyen Tri, at the Vietnamese Catholic Community in London, says he was contacted by a family in Vietnam who hadn't heard from their son in more than three months. They wanted to know if their son was ‘dead or alive’ after hearing about the fire – which started on May 7.
Father Tri says he received the call from the man's family on July 14 and – after carrying out some research about the Bismark Mill blaze – informed Greater Manchester Police on July 21. It is not known whether the man is one of the victims found inside the mill and formal identification is yet to take place.
Police are trying to trace ‘potential’ family members in Vietnam. Officials from the Vietnamese embassy have also been drafted in to help with the investigation and to assist with identifying the deceased.
Friday: Cloudy changing to sunny by early evening. 23C.
Roads closed: Delph New Road, Dobcross, in both directions for roadworks between Wall Hill Road and Oldham Road until August 5. Eccles New Road eastbound due to roadworks from Weaste Road to Langworthy Road, until October 24.
Trams: No service on Metrolink between Eccles and MediaCityUK due to engineering works until October 21.
On the buses: Arriva services suspended due to strike action
Today's Manc trivia question: What is the tallest building in Manchester?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
Liz Truss claims she will perform a major u-turn on Northern Powerhouse Rail if she wins the Tory leadership race.
She told The Northern Agenda she will deliver the project in full if she becomes the next Prime Minister. "We will build the Northern Powerhouse Rail to link up communities and unlock potential across the North. That’s how we will bring better jobs to the North and address productivity," she said.
It would mean tens of billions of pounds of new infrastructure investment and new high speed connections from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford. After recent broken promises over NPR, you'd be forgiven for being dubious.
Boris Johnson's proposal to slash the NPR budget by £24.9bn, with upgrades replacing plans for a new line, has gone down badly among Northern leaders. The region's mayors say building NPR in full is ‘critical to unlocking the full potential of the Northern economy in the 21st century and levelling us up with the South’.
The firing of Sam Tarry has drawn condemnation from unions and Labour MPs. Sir Keir Starmer says he fired the shadow transport minister for making up policy ‘on the hoof’.
The Labour leader says Mr Tarry gave broadcast interviews from the picket line ‘without permission’, and made up policy. “The Labour Party will always be on the side of working people, but we need collective responsibility, as any organisation does,” he said.
It's understood the policy Mr Tarry was considered to have fabricated was when he told Sky News every worker should get a pay rise in line with inflation. Labour has not officially supported the industrial action, but has accused the Government of inaction and urged ministers to get involved in negotiations.
Mr Tarry – who is in a relationship with deputy Labour leader and Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner – said it had been a ‘privilege’ to serve on Labour’s top team.
Stats on infants: Children in Oldham are more likely to die as babies, five-year-olds have rotting teeth and a quarter of youngsters are obese by their final year of primary school, according to reports presented to councillors at a health scrutiny meeting. Health chiefs say the situation is unlikely to substantially change for the better unless more families in the area are lifted out of poverty. Charlotte Green has the story.
Strikes: Sir Cary Cooper has warned the country could see disruption as bad as the 1970s as walkouts continue. The professor of psychology at the University of Manchester predicts thousands more workers will ballot for strike action in the coming weeks and months. "I think the time is slightly different to the 1970s because there are so many adverse factors at play here,” he says. When we had the strikes before it was partly about inflation and bad industrial relations between unions and management. This time it's much more complicated. Complicated by Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the impact on energy prices.”
Atom Valley: Plans to make north east Greater Manchester the ‘engine room’ of the region’s ‘next industrial revolution’ will go before leaders tomorrow. The new Mayoral Development Zone across Rochdale, Bury and Oldham, dubbed ‘Atom Valley’, is focused on three sites which bosses say have the potential to accommodate 1.6m sq m of employment space, create around 20,000 jobs and deliver 7,000 new homes. Nick Statham reports.
Landlord John Donnelly can be seen here keeping the peace between two stalwarts of the bus boxing club at The Fox Inn, in Blackley, back in the 1980s. He is sandwiched between trainer Jimmy Lewis and lightweight David Swan.
With walkouts continuing and more predicted across various sectors, some have dubbed 2022 as the Summer of Discontent. But M.E.N chief reporter Neal Keeling says it would take a lot to rival the misery felt during the Winter of Discontent. He recently looked back on what it was like to live through that era. Take a look here.
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, what is the tallest building in Manchester, is Densgate Square's South Tower, at 201 metres.