Dear readers — we’re into the final week. As of writing this email, The Mill stands at 651 new members in our quest to add 1000. And, as much as we’re still going to need a big final push to get to the finish line, we wanted to open this newsletter with an enormous thank you. The 1000 target was always going to be incredibly ambitious — a normal good month for us is to add 150 members. This is the best growth we’ve ever seen and it stands as a testament to how much the Millers have rallied behind this campaign.
Over the past few weeks we’ve had members stopping by our office on an almost daily basis to pick up copies of our print edition to distribute in their communities. Most of the 50,000 copies have now been delivered, and it’s been great to see people sharing pictures with theirs. If you have received one through your door, or have picked one up from one of us in town, please do share a picture of yourself holding it online (and include this link if you can), it helps the campaign massively.
@manchestermill.bsky.social yes The Mill to my door!!
— Duncan McVey (@duncanmcvey.bsky.social) 2025-11-27T20:08:10.067Z
Thanks as well for all the supportive comments, posts and emails, which have boosted morale no end whenever we share them in our work groups. “I cancelled The Times today to make room for The Mill, Britain's best online local newspaper,” says former journalist Tony Britton. “Make no mistake — this one's better than most anything we did in the newsroom, back in the day.” Meanwhile, Jennie had these words of support: “The Mill keeps demonstrating why it is so important to have a truly local paper. They really do feel like they are a part of Manchester, not 'reporting' on it from somewhere else!”
Now we need one last push. One week, 350 more members. That’s 50 more members a day, 2.083 an hour, or 0.0347 a minute. Very doable, when you put it like that. One more week to sign up for whatever price you choose if you aren’t yet a member, one more week to go out and spread the word to any potential future Millers if you are.
Now, onwards with the newsletter. As an example of the kind of journalism you’ll be helping to support if you do join us, today’s briefing brings you the latest about James Binks, the Rochdale council chief executive whose suspension was forced by our reporting. We’ve now seen an email sent by Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig saying she was “shocked and repulsed” by the revelations we uncovered.
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Big story: Council leader “shocked and repulsed” by what she read in The Mill
Top Line: Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig was “shocked and repulsed” by what she read regarding the serious misconduct of the council’s senior executives at an award ceremony last year, according to an internal email shared with colleagues last week and seen by The Mill.
Context: In her email, Craig was referring to a confidential report we uncovered earlier this month, in which former assistant CEO of Manchester City Council James Binks was found to have “inappropriately touched and grinded against” a junior female colleague.
- The report found Binks “worked on” the young staffer with former leader of Children’s Services and Deputy CEO Paul Marshall.
- It also found the council’s HR lead Mark Bennett witnessed this behaviour but made no official report or attempt to discipline the men. He and Marshall have since resigned.
“Across society sexism and misogyny is all too prevalent,” Craig told council staff. “You always want to think it happens somewhere else, not in your own back yard.” The leader of the council went on to say she was “truly horrified” by what happened at the council’s staff awards last year.
The report was delivered to the council by senior employment lawyer Victoria Duddles on 13 October. But reading Craig’s letter, you get the impression that she first became aware of the allegations against council execs when she read about them in The Mill.
When we asked Manchester Council when Craig was first made aware of the findings of Duddles’s report, whether she first read about them in the Mill and — if that is the case — why those findings weren’t shared with us sooner, a spokesperson said:
The Leader of the Council has been kept regularly and appropriately informed throughout the process following a complaint being made in August this year, and a comprehensive independent investigation being commissioned by the Council. In local authorities legal and HR responsibility for staffing matters rests with the Chief Executive as the head of paid service. The Leader is clear about the kind of positive culture that should exist within the organisation, and that highest standards should be upheld both internally and when working with residents. The Chief Executive has assured the Leader that quick and decisive action is taken on any complaints received, and that anyone making a complaint gets the necessary support.
Binks is currently CEO of Rochdale council, a position he attained before a complaint by Manchester staff was made against him. He was suspended by Rochdale’s leader, Neil Emmott, last Monday following our reporting. Following the suspension, we asked the same question of Emmott as we now ask of Craig, when did he become aware of the report?
In Emmott’s case we got the answer in the Guardian. The council said it received the report on 24 October and that Emmott didn’t receive the report until 27 November (interestingly, the day after The Mill sent the council a list of questions about it).
- We have since asked Suzanne Antrobus, Rochdale’s monitoring officer — who was entrusted with the report — why it took so long for it to be shared with Emmott, allowing Binks to stay in post for over a month. We haven’t had a response.
Bottom line: Sources at Manchester City Council say that Craig and CEO Tom Stannard are trying to regain control of the narrative surrounding misogyny and sexism at the council. Encouraging staff to be open about their concerns is a good start, but questions remain around how previous instances of misconduct — like Binks’s and Marshall’s — were handled.
Stories like this one, which has led to the suspension of a very senior council official in Rochdale, involve a lot of detailed reporting, careful editing and high legal costs. They’re only achievable because we have thousands of paying members. There's a reason very few outlets take on investigations like this — it’s hard to make the numbers add up.
Our reporting on James Binks has been free to read: that’s because we think it’s in the public interest. However, we're currently trying to welcome 350 more members this week to hit our target of 1000. If you’d like to support us to continue doing more journalism like this there has never been a better time to join. During the campaign, you can pay what you can afford if the full price is too much, and you'll get that price for the next two months. It would be great to have you on board.
Your Mill briefing
A report has found that China is “systemically” working with UK universities — including the University of Manchester — to “accelerate its technological and military ambitions”. The Times reports that China has “partly achieved its rapid military ascent via a network of defence-focused universities” where researchers have co-authored papers with academics from Chinese institutions linked to the People’s Liberation Army, covering things like anti-jamming, hypersonic and laser-directed tech. One report identified by the Times was a paper published by University of Manchester academics and the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre, which is involved in the development of hypersonic missiles.
Rob Cousen, a former senior officer at Greater Manchester Police, has been barred from policing after a panel found he sexually harassed a colleague over an eight month period. Cousen, the District Commander of our City of Manchester District before he was suspended from duty in October 2022, sent unsolicited pictures of his penis to the colleague and attempted to meet her outside of work hours. Cousen took early retirement this year, but an independent panel found his actions amounted to gross misconduct, and that he would have been dismissed were he still serving.
Will anyone save Salford Red Devils? The rugby club, one of the country’s most storied given their 150 year history, was last week liquidated at a High Court hearing: they had racked up debts in the millions. Earlier this year the club was taken over by a consortium led by businessman Dario Berta (and including Tongan rapper Isiosaia Kailahi and his business partner Curtiz Brown), but the story since has been one of mass protests and unpaid wages. Last week’s news was the finale of a long-running crisis. Now the club’s main support group, the 1873, have put out a statement saying two separate new consortiums have come forward to express an interest in trying to salvage things. “Positive developments, but accuracy, integrity and transparency must come first. False claims won’t cut it. After everything this club has endured, honesty is the minimum standard,” it read.
And finally, Angela Rayner, MP for Ashton Under-Lyne, will return to cabinet despite her resignation following a tax scandal, says Sir Keir Starmer. He told the Observer that Rayner was “hugely talented” and a major voice in the Labour movement, going on to describe her as "the best social mobility story this country has ever seen". Rayner was replaced by fellow Greater Manchester MP Lucy Powell as deputy leader of the Labour Party in October.
This week’s weather
Tuesday: 🌧️ Windy with heavy rain to start the morning, which will turn increasingly showery as the morning progresses. Mostly cloudy with occasional showers during the afternoon. Unseasonably mild. Max 16°c.
Wednesday: 🌥️ Mostly dry with patchy cloud and spells of sunshine. Breezy and feeling cooler. Max 11°c
Thursday: 🌥️Dry and breezy with sunny spells, especially during the morning. Relatively mild. Max 11°c.
Friday: 🌦️ Mostly cloudy with showers during the afternoon. Less breezy than of late. Max 11°c.
Outlook: 🌦️Remaining milder than average for the time of year, but often cloudy with periods of rainfall as low pressure dominates. Likely mild and unsettled next week as well
Home of the week
No shortage of photosynthesis taking place on Halliwell Road in Bolton, where you can pick up this wonderful Victorian stone cottage / plant nursery for £210,000.
Recommended reads
I went behind the scenes at Britain’s worst airport — this is what I found — The Times
A fun one for anyone with a Christmas getaway booked in. The Times spends a day at the airport ranked the country’s worst for the fourth year in a row: Manchester Airport. According to the man in charge of the place the ranking is “outdated and unrepresentative,” but an unfortunate medley of problems have been identified by customers: like the lack of food options and the fact there’s nowhere to sit. Some good news, however, is that travel journalist Gordon Swift thinks “the new-look Terminal 2 is shockingly pleasant”.
‘People had forgotten about it’: onboard the 7am Manchester-London train service saved from axe — The Guardian
Certainly good news for Millers who enjoy reading about modes of transport this week: here’s another one, this time about trains. The 7am Manchester-London line was narrowly saved from the axe last week, after an abortive decision to turn it into a passenger-less “ghost train” prompted mass outrage and an intervention from the transport secretary. “Why would they cancel it? What’s the point of making life harder for people?” one interviewee, who apparently only goes to London when “summoned”, tells the paper.
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It's the final week of our campaign to add 1000 new Mill members. We've got 650, we need 350 more. The target was always incredibly ambitious, to be this close now is really exciting. If we can make it we'll be we'll be committing to six pledges to make Manchester a better place.
To help us hit that target we’re offering you the opportunity to pay whatever you can afford for your first two months of membership. Your support will help us continue to do the kind of journalism we do — the kind that holds power to account and gives a voice to people who you may not have heard.
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