In Wigan, ‘sad looking fields’ become a beautiful wooded glade

Dear readers — we hope you’re enjoying seeing the lovely pink blossom on the trees. It’s the end of March, which means the gardeners and volunteers at the charity City of Trees, entrusted by our local authorities to deliver a massive tree planting programme all across the city region, are now hanging up their shovels and dungarees, having come to the end of tree planting season. We sat down with their woodland creation manager Carly Harper to ask about her highlights from the season. We also have another cameo from Sacha Lord, who was telling fibs to the BBC’s political editor on Sunday, plus loads more.

Our weekend read took you inside GMP’s investigation after a torso was found in a Salford nature reserve. The police had no suspect, no way to identify the body and no cause of death. How did this massive investigation result in a successful conviction? Read that piece here.

Coming up this week, we’ll finally be able to publish our investigation into what really happened to cause the Royal Exchange Theatre to cancel the entire run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the very last minute last September. If you’d like to pass us any last-minute information, get in touch. We also have a beautiful story by Ophira about the North Hulme Sound, an overlooked aspect of ’90s Manchester’s music scene when Moss Side and Hulme were considered the biggest producers of hip-hop and rap, plus, writer Ruby Martin takes us on a pub-crawl-style tour of the city’s Scandi-inspired artisan bakeries (yes, she would recommend). 

🌤️ This week’s weather

Tuesday 🌦️ Dull at first with patchy rain. Dry and brighter skies in the afternoon. 14°C.

Wednesday 🌤️ Pleasant with hazy sunny spells. 15°C.

Thursday ☁️ Breezy and cloudy with patchy light rain. 12°C.

Friday 🌦️ Windy with sunny spells and some heavy showers. 12°C.

Weekend ⛅️ Mostly dry and bright with seasonal temperatures.

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

We’re looking for someone to lead our work with advertisers and sponsors like the Financial Times, the RHS and Manchester Museum. If that could be you, apply here. Deadline is Sunday!

Your briefing

🌲 Virtually no one in Manchester will have done as much to bolster the city’s green credentials as the good folks at City of Trees. At the end of March, the group will come to the end of this year’s planting season, which has seen them plant literally thousands of trees all over Greater Manchester as part of their efforts to help the city region better combat climate change, flooding and poor air quality. The charity was founded in 2017 and is funded by a mix of government money and the GMCA’s £299,880 Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund to increase canopy cover in Greater Manchester. On Friday, we sat down with the organisation’s woodland creation manager Carly Harper, who told us the charity prioritises areas with very low tree cover, areas that suffer from poor air quality and areas at risk of flooding. One of the key findings of the data, according to Harper, is the relationship between densely populated areas and areas with high unemployment and low tree cover.

🌺 On 8 March, 2,000 trees and dozens of wildflower seeds were planted in Nicolmere field in Wigan, an area that had fallen out of use with the local community. “It’s been repurposed from this sort of really sad looking field into something that’s going to be really, really special I think,” Harper says. “It’s going to age beautifully into a really nice wooded glade, and we’re hoping that’s actually going to entice people to use it again and make that space feel like a place where families, children and grandparents can go and use it.” The tree planting season may be nearly over, but there’s still plenty of ways to get involved with City of Tree’s work via their volunteering scheme.

📺 On Sunday, Sacha Lord appeared on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s flagship political talk show, ostensibly to talk about the Spring Statement. However, the conversation soon turned to our reporting, and the story we broke last year that revealed Lord obtained £400,000 of Arts Council money via an application that made highly misleading claims about the nature of his business. “Did you get things wrong?” Kuenssberg asked. Lord responded that the Arts Council have “actually come out after nine months and said there was no intention to mislead, which we’re delighted about.” Like many of the details in the Arts Council application itself, Lord’s response to Kuenssberg was also incorrect. In January, the Arts Council concluded their eight-month investigation and decided to withdraw the grant on the basis that Lord breached Clause 8.3.8 of the grant’s terms and conditions, which reads: “You have supplied us with any information that is wrong or misleading, either by mistake or because you were trying to mislead us.” A spokesperson clarified at the time that while the application did contain misleading information, it is not within the Arts Council’s remit “to determine whether the misleading information was supplied deliberately”. This morning, we asked the Arts Council if there was any update to this statement and a spokesperson confirmed their position remains the same.

🏗️ The MEN has published a new story about the Hotspur Press, claiming the picturesque decaying former cotton mill is “symbolic of the tensions between those riding the wave of a property boom in the city, which may be finally cooling, and the country’s defenders of historic bricks and mortar”. It’s a noteworthy change of tack from the MEN, given that in February they were generously praising developing company Manner for having “saved” the Hotspur Press. In reality, as Ophira’s reporting revealed, Manner had launched a misleading petition to prevent the building from being listed, planned to demolish a large portion of it and then build luxury student flats in its place. SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the Georgian Group and the Council for British Archaeology are currently appealing for a review of the government’s decision not to list the historic mill, arguing that redevelopment could mean “jeopardising important evidence of early power transmission technology”.

🛗 We’ve been hearing that the lift in one of the main campus buildings at the University of Greater Manchester has been out of action since the beginning of this year, an endless source of frustration to students who use wheelchairs and staff members chasing up the facilities team as to when it can be fixed. Last week, an unknown satirist placed a plaque next to the broken lift, saying it was actually an art installation called Ascenseur that “confronts themes of frustration, inequality and the barriers to diversity” and is “purposefully unsettling, symbolising systemic failings and the silent distress they provoke”.

📰 Also in university news: Bolton West MP Phil Brickell met with the Office for Students and the universities minister, Baroness Jacqui Smith, last week to discuss our allegations of possible financial corruption and racist bullying at the university, adding that “there is only so much I can say at this stage”. As ever, we’re keen to speak to more insiders with knowledge of the university — reach out to Mollie if that’s you.

🚌 From today, you can tap in and tap out using your contactless card on any Bee Network bus without needing to buy a paper ticket. For £2, you can take as many bus trips as you like within an hour, and the maximum cap means you’ll never spend more than £9.50 a day for unlimited bus travel. TfGM has also announced new monthly and annual tickets which will be valid across Bee Network buses and trams — details here.

Quick hits

👮 Greater Manchester Police confirms it has made an arrest after reports of a man in a gas mask releasing noxious gas on trams between Manchester Victoria and Bury. A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of possessing a noxious substance with intent to injure after several passengers reported feeling “discomfort or dizziness”.

🎻 Manchester Baroque, a classical orchestra who play on old instruments, are performing Bach’s B Minor Mass in Manchester Cathedral on Sunday 30 March. They’re offering a 25% discount on tickets for Mill readers, which you can redeem via this link.

📻 BBC broadcaster and Piccadilly Radio co-founder Andy Peebles, best known for interviewing John Lennon in New York just two days before he was assassinated, has died aged 76. 

🌿 Hulme Community Garden Centre has announced a day festival on Saturday 5 July to celebrate its 25th birthday this year.

Home of the week

Why does this Edwardian four bed in Salford have so many mirrors? We couldn’t possibly say, but we have endless respect for the photographer for keeping out of the reflections. £330,000.

Our favourite reads

John Cooper Clarke: ‘A national treasure? I hate that’ — BBC

In anticipation of his UK-first headline arena show at Co-op live this Saturday, Salfordian poet John Cooper Clarke chats punk, heroin, the Arctic Monkeys and national treasure-dom with the BBC. “National treasure? Shnational shmeasure,” says the poet. “Not unless it comes with a generous stipend. Then I’ll think about it.”

The Guardian view on Manchester United’s stadium plans: put the fans first — The Guardian

Yesterday, The Guardian’s editorial gave the world their two cents on United’s new stadium plans, a project “so gargantuan” that it “will undoubtedly be a catalyst for welcome economic growth in the wider Trafford area.” Here’s hoping. They also managed to go the entire editorial without comparing the current designs to a circus tent, which is generous of them.

Our to do list

Tuesday

🌱 Sow the City are hosting a free online Community Garden Design class between 2 and 4pm — teaching you how to create a thriving, community-enriching garden from start to finish. Reserve a spot here.

🍗 Pop-up Asian fried chicken shop All Fried Up are heading to SEESAW from Tuesday until Friday this week — and the Tuesday special is kimchi stir-fried noodles for just £5.

Wednesday

❓ Got any pressing questions for the mayor? Andy Burnham is holding a question time at The Fusilier Museum in Bury from 7pm.

🎧 Mancunian DJ Jumbled will be giving a workshop for newbies to the decks. Learn how to play your first ever DJ set live for £5. All ages welcome.

Thursday

🎤 Spoken word storyteller Stephe Harrop will be exploring the forgotten mythology of the north in her new show Northering, performed at the Portico. Tickets are £10, with £5 concessions available.

🍯 And Honey Blues have just restarted their weekly blues dancing lessons at La Gitane. The classes cost just £7, and run from 7.30–9.30pm.

Got a To Do you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.