Questions over Sacha Lord’s place in new exhibition celebrating Manchester ‘changemakers’

Dear readers — good afternoon to you all and welcome to today’s briefing. There’s been lots going on over the weekend, and as ever we have captured it all in one succinct newsletter to keep you all abreast of what’s going on in the city. That includes the likely extension of a controversial housing loan fund, TfGM’s incoming “high frequency transport routes”, the struggles of a popular café to stay open a few hours later, and a new vending machine for ducks. Before that, we speak to one of the city’s “changemakers” who was nominated to be included in an exhibition of portraits at HOME alongside her peers, but pulled out when she saw one of those peers was Sacha Lord. “I can’t in good conscience be part of an exhibition that includes someone with such a record,” she told organisers. That’s below. 

Over the weekend, we published Jack’s interview with star-chef Sam Buckley. He has recently been away from his sustainable restaurant, Where The Light Gets In, running a pop-up that has been taking flak for being pretentious. But have people got him all wrong? Mill members certainly thought so: “Glad you’ve given this a more nuanced take,” commented one member, “Interesting chap. All power to him and good luck,” said another. Others remain unconvinced: “It’s all so tiresome isn’t it? Does growing your kale on the roof of the Merseyway make it any better to eat?” Read the full piece here. And if you’d like to get your take in the comments, become a paid member here.

Correction: In last Thursday’s newsletter we said that Jennifer Watling, a plant scientist at Manchester Metropolitan University had called for visa rules to be revised so that international students could not bring their families to the UK. Watling was in fact calling for visa rules to be revised so international students could bring their families to the UK. We have amended this in the online version of the newsletter and apologised to Professor Watling.

🌤️ This week’s weather

Tuesday ☀️ A cold and frosty morning, ahead of a dry and mostly sunny day. Breezy. 12°C.

Wednesday ☀️ Another frosty start, then dry with long spells of sunshine. 15°C.

Thursday 🌤️ Dry and pleasantly warm with hazy sunshine. 18°C.

Friday 🌦️ Breezy with warm spells of sunshine but with the risk of showers in the afternoon. 17°C.

Weekend ☁️ Mild and cloudy with occasional rain.

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

Your briefing

📰 A Manchester “changemaker” has pulled out of an upcoming portrait exhibition at HOME of people who have helped shape the city after finding out that Sacha Lord, the former night time economy advisor to Andy Burnham, was also on the list. In January, Lord was asked to pay £400k back to Arts Council England after his company submitted a grossly misleading application, leading to him to resign as Burnham’s advisor. Hannah Cox, who runs a sustainability consultancy targeted at the live events sector, was nominated to be part of the exhibition, called “Frameworthy: Manchester”, but questioned its organisers on their choice to include Lord. After Cox sent links to our reporting revealing the misleading application, Frameworthy’s lead curator said “we don’t provide justifications or explanations for our selection process”. Cox, who has throughout her career advocated for transparency in the arts, replied “I can’t in good conscience be part of an exhibition that includes someone with such a record.” 

Speaking to The Mill yesterday, Cox said there was particular irony in the exhibition being held at HOME when the money that Lord’s company improperly obtained had been earmarked for cultural organisations. We contacted Frameworthy, who said: “We will never enter into debates about individual selections, nor is curation a joint process between us and those featured. Just as an author decides who appears in their book, we retain full discretion over our exhibitions”. 

🏗️ The GMCA’s director of place, Andrew McIntosh, has revealed that talks are ongoing to extend the GMCA’s £1bn Housing Investment Fund, which was due to expire in April. He was speaking at MIPIM, an annual property conference in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, at an event with Andy Burnham and Bev Craig. “We are very much expecting to sign some extension for the housing fund”, said a very sunkissed McIntosh. 

In July, the property company Weis Group took legal action against the GMCA for giving what it believed was too much money to Renaker, another property company who have used loans from the Housing Investment Fund to build many of the glass skyscrapers in Manchester city centre. The Weis Group said that these loans, which total half a billion, breach the Subsidy Control Act and have “distorted” the Manchester property market. As we reported at the time: “It’s notable that the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund that Renaker is benefitting from is designed to support housing growth, because Renaker has yet to build any affordable housing, often ducking its Section 106 requirements on the basis they would make its developments ‘unviable’”. The GMCA denied that it favoured Renaker or that these loans were distributed unfairly. 

💼 We’re looking for someone to head up our ads business, working with high quality sponsors for our briefings (such as the Lawn Tennis Association, the Financial Times, and Manchester Museum). If that could be you, check out the job ad here — applications close on Friday.

🍅 Something More Productive, a neighbourhood pastry and coffee shop in Withington, is fighting to open two hours later on Friday and Saturday evenings, arguing these extra operating hours will help them stay afloat. In December, Manchester City Council’s licensing committee approved the extended licensable hours, but in January, the council’s planning committee said it was unable to support the extension, citing objections from local residents. 

📚 Speaking of coffee shops, Chapter One is also facing somewhat of a crisis. The cosy, autumnal bookshop café in the Northern Quarter was known as a refuge for the city’s quiet introverts, but the owners’ decision to knock the wall down, connecting the cafe with Mala, the flashy cocktail bar next door that hosts loud DJs and giggly hen dos, has not proved popular. Know more about what happened here? Get in touch.

🌿 We enjoyed these before-and-after photos of Dove Stone, a major revegetation project by the RSPB and United Utilities that started in 2005 and aims to “improve the bog’s ability to store carbon, improve water quality running off the moor and reduce the risk of floods and fires” across hundreds of hectares of moorlands.

🧑‍⚕️ The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that in Manchester, incidents of trans people being refused prescriptions of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by GPs are on the rise. Indigo, an NHS specialist adult gender service based in the city centre, says 8% of its requests for its service users to receive HRT treatment were refused by GPs in 2022/2023, rising to 11% the following year. 

🎂 Spotted in the Northern Quarter over the weekend: People queuing from 5am for a free slice of cake. Get Baked, a new cake shop on Stevenson Square, was offering 1,000 free slices of its viral Bertha cake to celebrate its opening. Bertha is a 24-layer chocolate cake where a single slice costs £20 and weighs more than a kilo.

Quick hits

🦆 There’s now a vending machine for ducks in Burrs Country Park in Bury. The Ducks Initiative, a group that fights against feeding ducks ultra-processed bread, installed the machine following a request from the park’s volunteers. The machine charges £1 for a portion of healthy oats, barley, peas and chopped lettuce, and some of the proceeds go towards maintaining the park.

📍 TfGM has released a new map showing Greater Manchester’s “high frequency” transport routes that are served by a bus or tram every 12 minutes.

🏗️ Developers LandSec have submitted a planning application to Manchester City Council proposing four apartment blocks containing a total of 879 homes near Mayfield Park.

🪦 Southern Cemetery, the largest cemetery in the UK and the second-largest in Europe, has been granted nature reserve status by Manchester City Council.

Home of the week

Ever the fans of Prestwich here at The Mill — this semi-detached home near Sedgley Park boasts three beds, one bath and a number of questionable curtain choices, all for £410,000.

Our favourite reads

Want to feel good about the wine world? Go to Manchester — The Financial Times

Manchester’s wine scene is enjoying a revival, says Jancis Robinson in the FT. Scandi-inspired wine bars like Ad Hoc, Flawd and Kerb are flourishing, Kelly Bishop’s wine tours are filled with enthusiastic wine tourists, and a wine list filled with luxury natural wines can be found anywhere from suburban restaurants to Mackie Mayor. 

A new start after 60: I was fed up with overflowing bins – so I became a rubbish crusher — The Guardian

This piece follows Eric McBean, a former enterprise lead at a housing association, who decided to start up his own garbage compaction business after being made redundant. “He cashed in a small private pension,” writes Paula Cocozza, and at 60 started his own rubbish compacting firm, having seen how bins were overflowing at his own building in Eccles. McBean had always wanted to be a businessman, though he probably didn’t expect that opportunity to come when he hit 60, nor did he expect the answer to his dream would be found in a bin. But he’s made it work. “We make it look like the rubbish was never there.”

The lonely death of Dr Jagdip Sidhu — The Londoner

This harrowing read by Andrew Kersley at our sister paper, The Londoner, tells the story of NHS doctor Jagdip Sidhu, who took his own life in 2018. In the year before his death, his family had noticed how the usual vitality and charisma Jagdip had about him began to drain. He greyed, he slept less, he worked 14-hour days. He had been running his hospital’s cardiology apartment almost on his own, with no one he could turn to for help. Programmes he helped lead had their funding cut, his fellow doctors were on long-term sick leave. He had begun to make mistakes and worried about being struck off. His brother, Amandip, felt Jagdip had detached from reality. Leaving his house one day he told him not to do anything stupid. That was the last time he saw his brother alive. “There were a lot of questions in the blur of weeks and months afterwards. But above all, one thought increasingly haunted Amandip: did his brother’s job in the NHS play a role in his death?”

Our to do list

Tuesday

👜 The Lowry are showing a production of Moira Buffini’s Handbagged, a comedy speculating on a behind-closed-doors conversation between Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher. Tomorrow there will be a free pre-show Q&A with the director at 7pm. Tickets for the show itself cost £32, and can be purchased here.

📚 And Serenity Booksellers in Romiley will be hosting a conversation between authors Adam Farrer and Chris McDonald. Farrer, who previously won the Northbound Book Award for Cold Fish Soup, will be discussing his new essay collection Broken Biscuits. Tickets cost £5, or £16.99 with a copy of the book.

Wednesday

🌷All week long (and therefore Wednesday included) RHS Bridgewater will be charging only £1 entry for anyone pitching up with a lottery ticket or scratchcard on their person, as part of the National Lottery Open Week. Is it a bit weird of the Royal Horticultural Society to be encouraging casual gambling? Probably, but a bargain’s a bargain nonetheless.

🏠 And HOME will be screening Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (that is one single film name to be clear). Directed by Chantal Akerman in 1975, the film follows the meticulous routine of the eponymous Jeanne as her sense of reality slowly unravels over the course of three days.

Thursday

🎻 The Manchester Folk Festival is kicking off this Thursday with an extensive line-up of new and established acts. Expect sea shanties and Swedish Mouth Singing (as opposed to what other type of singing, we do not know).

📖 And Comma Press are hosting Dissecting Manctopia — a series of “readings and ramblings” from the authors of their recent collection The Book of Manchester. Entry is £5, and the event will be held at the Feel Good Club.

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