Dear readers — the fallout from the collapse of Manchester Pride continued apace over the weekend. The Mill broke the story of Pride’s imminent collapse on Thursday and followed that up with a long-read on Sunday, with interviews from former Pride staff who believe the charity bet big on trying to expand the event with major artists and events, a strategy which ultimately backfired. Thanks to all those who had kind words about our reporting, including Mohammed, who called it an “excellent article and the quality I have come to expect from The Mill,” as well as all those who have continued to send in tips.
Jack Walton
Today’s edition also features the former Manchester City Council chief executive accused of calling a local property agent a “massive Jewish bellend”, the long-awaited plans for the redesign of Piccadilly Gardens and the return of Churchill’s Lions, who have found themselves in hot water after unleashing their flag-based protests on a new target: Gary Neville.
The Manchester Building Society throws open its doors
It’s the news we’ve been building up to all year — Manchester Building Society’s city centre branch is now open! Pop into their new branch on King Street to see what they’ve done with the gorgeous Grade II listed building.
The Society’s ethos is all about working with local people to deliver face-to-face financial services for the whole community, with a commitment to the people and places that make up Greater Manchester.
Manchester Building Society is a trading name of Newcastle Building Society
Can Piccadilly Gardens finally be saved?
Long–awaited plans for the redesign of Manchester’s most-derided public space have been revealed. Piccadilly Gardens has long been considered an ill-designed space, as well as a hub of anti-social behaviour and crime. Part of this is perhaps because it sits alongside a large transport interchange. Back in the late 90s, Martin Stockley, a civil engineer, got his colouring pencils out and traced all the bus routes in and out of the area. The result, he told us last year, was like “a kitten that had got hold of a ball of ball and tangled it all up”. The crime issues the area faces are most likely down to this fact, Piccadilly Gardens is a place where lots of people cluster. Alas, the brand new transport interchange will be the most expensive part of the new project (for which a total of £25 million was set aside four years ago).
Beyond that, there’s going to be a big push to make it more of a garden again, with the Manchester Flower Festival getting involved and residents given the opportunity to vote on what flowers they want to see planted. “It's still called Piccadilly Gardens and we've heard loud and clear from Manchester people that they want its appearance to do more to reflect that name,” said Bev Craig, while Mr City Centre Pat Karney called it the “biggest change” in the history of the gardens, speaking to the Manchester Evening News. Moreover, the plans will also include a new hub for Greater Manchester Police on the site, which would double as tourist information and be shared with other agencies.
Last year, when we asked our readers what they thought should happen to the gardens, we got a wide range of responses. Peter Black was among the more optimistic, saying that the chaos of the space made it exciting, and it was good to see so many uses crammed into a small space. “I think the Gardens provides a huge range of interest and activity and I don’t think Manchester should do anything to lose that animation,” he wrote. Less optimistic was Robin Hamptonmere, who said the space should be swapped for an “obsidian black spire” that reaches 600m into the sky and brings “a noticeable chill to the surrounding streets”. Hamptonmere clarified that “the tower serves no purpose, like the wall or the whore pits before it…but whenever someone proposes a taller building to hide the tower or attempts to demolish the tower, it pulses and grows another hundred or so metres.”
Do either of those ideas work for you? The Mill will be writing about the new-look Piccadilly Gardens this weekend, and we’d love to hear our reader’s thoughts. Drop an email to jack@manchestermill.co.uk or leave a comment below.
Council in court
The case of Benjamin Rose v Manchester City Council and Joanne Roney started today. For those out of the loop, Rose — a property consultant who works for the powerful landowners the Weis Group — was told by another property agent that during lunch with the council he was told its then-CEO Joanne Roney had described Rose as a “massive Jewish bellend”. Rose isn’t Jewish, but the family behind the Weis group are. Rose’s claim is for a breach of the Equality Act, on the grounds he was discriminated against based on being perceived to be Jewish. Roney denies the allegation, and so does the council worker Richard Cohen, who Rose’s professional acquaintance Mark Powell says told him that Roney slurred Rose, according to skeleton arguments submitted to court today.
As you have probably surmised, it’s a bit convoluted. But it’s a headache for the council and Roney, who is now the managing director of Birmingham City Council and is under scrutiny over the current furore surrounding whether to allow Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend a Europa League game against Aston Villa next month. On Friday, the Telegraph ran with the headline: “Boss of council behind ban on Tel Aviv fans ‘used anti-Semitic slur’”. We understand that Birmingham has sent its own city solicitor to today’s hearing. Manchester City Council’s city solicitor, meanwhile, will be on the stand. The prosecution is making the argument that Fiona Ledden dismissed Rose’s complaints and failed to properly investigate his claims. We’ll be at the case as it goes on, so expect updates through the week.
Churchill's Lions return, Stockport Council loosens its green belt, and a new mural to football's first superstar
⚽ Three men have been charged after a pitch invasion protesting Gary Neville during Salford City’s match against Oldham at the weekend. Neville received a lot of criticism from the political right recently when he revealed that he took a flag down on one of his construction sites and accused “angry, middle-aged white men” of using the flag in a “negative fashion.” It prompted the protestors to attempt to plant one in the centre circle during the Salford match (Neville is the club’s co-owner). If you’re wondering who might be sitting on a spare stock of flags, the protest appears to be linked to our old friends Churchill’s Lions, whose figurehead Lee Twamley turned out to be a convicted people smuggler. Twamley, we understand, has parted ways with his fellow Lions, but another member, Ashlea Simon, posted footage of the Salford protest on X, explaining it was a co-effort between “Salford patriots” and the far-right group Britain First.
🌳 Stockport Council has published its draft local plan for the first time since it pulled out of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (since renamed Places for Everyone) in 2020. Despite the Lib Dem council previously making clear it would not allow the borough’s green belt sites to be redeveloped, changed planning laws and housing targets have meant it has “released” — earmarked for development — 26 such sites. Council leader Mark Roberts described the council as being “forced” to open the areas to development by national government policy. Outside of the Lib Dems, onlooking councillors that have been lobbying for the local plan to be completed sooner — so that the council could begin work allocating where new housing would go — are jubilant. Matt Wynne, a former Labour councillor that left the party to start the independent Stockport Community Group, called the plan “a victory for the tens of thousands of Stopfordians for which affordable housing is currently out of reach.”
🖌️ The Withington Walls community art project has painted a new mural of Billy Meredith. Known as “football’s first superstar”, Meredith played for both Manchester City and United and was a key figure in the formation of the Professional Footballers Association, which advocated for players’ rights and fairer wages in the early 20th Century. Here’s a short video on the mural.
💸 Finally, Olympus Fish and Chip Restaurant, whose owner Tasos Pattichis was profiled by Ophira earlier this year, has been found to have failed to pay its workers minimum wage. In a new list published by the government, Olympus is the only business in Bolton found to have underpaid its workers. It is amongst almost 500 others from across the country that have been fined £10m for failing to pay the national minimum wage.
This week’s weather
Tuesday 🌧️ Breezy & cloudy with showery periods of heavy rain. Max 12°c.
Wednesday 🌦️ Calm with bright spells & isolated showers. Max 13°c.
Thursday 🌧️ Wet & windy with outbreaks of heavy rain. Max 10°c.
Friday 🌦️ Breezy & mostly cloudy with intermittent showers. Max 11°c.
Weekend ⛅ Drier and brighter but turning colder with overnight frosts.
Home of the week
Any aspiring gamekeepers among the Mill’s readership might want to check out this gamekeeper’s lodge in Worsley, which was built around 1850 and costs £500,000.
Reads
Ricky Hatton’s son: It’s such a shock. Dad was the best any of us had seen him — The Times
In this moving interview with the Times, Campbell Hatton talks about the father he idolised and followed into a career in boxing. Since Hatton’s suicide last month, there has been an outpouring of grief across Greater Manchester but particularly in Hattersley, where his local pub the Harehill Tavern has been turned into a de facto shrine. Succour for Campbell, but things remain raw. “Everyone said we were like carbon copies. It’s crazy how similar we were. It’s a bit weird for his mates a lot of the time. We were having a drink in [the Harehill Tavern] the other day with a few of the lads and they were saying it was like he’s still here.”
‘Unbelievably relevant’: what can the explosive 1958 play A Taste of Honey tell us today? — The Guardian
“Almost nothing is left of Delaney’s soot-stained, seedy Salford,” reads this Guardian piece from last year about the ever-lasting relevance of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey. “The docks of the script are now home to the BBC at Media City, with gleaming high-rises packed full of international students replacing the tumbledown terraces”. But despite all that change, the story of a single mother and her pregnant teenage daughter has never lost its power.
Our writers recommend
🥐 Jack plans on spending inordinate amounts of time and money at the Flat Baker’s new cafe on Radium Street in Ancoats. Up until now, it has been operating out of a hatch around the corner. Famed for its selection of various pastries stuffed with pistachio creme, there’s also a good range of savoury options, plus speciality brigadeiros — little Brazilian chocolate truffles.
🎭 And other Jack has his eye on Myra's Story, which has a three day run at the Lowry, just a few feet from his doorstep, this week. Fiona Hewitt-Twamley (no relation…) is said to be “outstanding”, according to people who know their theatre. Here are the details.
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