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The Mancunian Way: Citehhh! – Manchester Evening News
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Here’s the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
I hope you enjoyed the glorious sunshine over the weekend. It looked like a fantastic couple of days for the 80,000 music fans who headed to Parklife, with our reporters picking out the sets from Wu-Tang Clan, The Prodigy and The 1975 as particular highlights.
In fact The 1975 were so popular that some fans camped outside Heaton Park on Saturday night (with provisions of Jammy Dodgers) to make sure they had a spot right in front of the stage once the doors opened at midday. That’s dedication.
It was (mostly) a very sunny and hot couple of days. But a few dark clouds above Prestwich brought about a ‘full show stop’ on Sunday afternoon. As a precaution, the music was turned off and fans were told to ‘move three metres’ away from large structures ahead of torrential downpours that lasted around 40 minutes. Not that it put a dampener on things – after all, it wouldn’t be Manchester without a bit of rain. And as you can see from , everyone got over it pretty quickly.
There was one final hitch though. On Sunday afternoon – just as thousands prepared to head home – Metrolink announced the suspension of multiple lines due to ‘severe’ damage to the overhead line at Victoria. It left many partygoers with the options of piling onto a shuttle bus, or walking three miles back into town from Heaton Park. If you’ve ever done that walk, you’ll know it’s quite a trek – especially when you’ve been partying all weekend and may be feeling a little bit…tired and emotional.
Transport bosses have warned that services will remain partly disrupted throughout Monday – just as City fans are due to head into the city centre for the victory parade. Oh eck!
Like sardines
Trams weren’t the only form of transport causing problems over the weekend. Football and music fans found themselves crammed like sardines onto the last train from Manchester Piccadilly to Liverpool on Saturday night.
With Roger Waters and The Weekend playing huge gigs and City fans in town to celebrate the treble win, crowds of people were left trying to jam onto the 11.28pm service.
Ricardo Mendonca had been in the city centre for some drinks with friends and realised he’d need to find another way back to Eccles when he saw the chaos on Platform 14.
“It was awful, it was just packed,” he told reporter Helena Vesty. “Lots of people were trying to get back home, especially on that train to Liverpool Lime Street – it was the last chance to get home until 8am.
“Before we got to platform 14, there were members of staff bringing a barrier to the platform where the screens at the top of the stairs tell you to wait before your train is there. But there were so many people going past the barriers or jumping over them.
“I went past because I was worried my train was about to leave – I never imagined I would walk down to see these crowds at the platform. One of the doors on the train wouldn’t close because there were too many people near the door so the sensors kept being triggered to open.”
Faced with Uber prices north of £50, Ricardo walked home, arriving around 3am. “I can definitely feel my legs today,” he said on Sunday.
Going underground
Speaking of the railways, its crunch time here in Manchester. The city’s council leader Bev Craig is due to speak in Parliament about HS2 this afternoon.
She’s expected to reiterate serious concerns about the government’s current plans – to bring high speed trains to the city on ‘ugly and intrusive’ concrete stilts that would swallow up half a million square metres of prime city centre land and blight Ardwick and Beswick with 15-metre high concrete viaducts.
She’ll also be making the case for an underground station at Piccadilly to the High Speed Rail Bill Select Committee. And though this scheme would initially be more expensive, local leaders say it would bring £333m more per year to the city’s economy by 2050.
The Manchester Evening News is also urging the government to rethink its HS2 plans and ‘not botch one of the most important transport projects ever to be built in the North of England by doing it on the cheap’.
You can read more about it here and we’ll be discussing the issue throughout the week. And you can read the comments from our readers here.
As one reader put it: “We already have one concrete monstrosity meandering it’s way through the city centre, we don’t need another. Not only would this be incredibly ugly and rip through existing communities, once it’s in we’d be stuck with it. Nowhere else would put up with this so neither should Manchester.”
Rain, rain, go away
You’d have to be insistently anti-football, or a Red, to ignore the fact that Manchester City have won the treble.
And, as you can see, there were scenes of euphoria in Piccadilly Gardens on Saturday night as fans celebrated the 1-0 win over Inter Milan that secured the title.
The victory parade is due to worm its way through the city centre, starting at Beetham Tower, from 6.30pm this evening, with entertainment starting an hour before that.
If you’re heading into town to celebrate, you can find all the information you’ll need here and details of road closures here.
I’m afraid thunderstorms are forecast (are the Met Office forecasters United fans or something?) but it won’t dampen spirits. At this stage, I’m not sure anything could.
READ MORE: What happened as Man City players left the Ataturk Stadium
Haaland’s cigar, kitman slide and Ronnie Foden – inside City celebrations
Man City surprise local schoolchildren with all three Treble trophies
Driven out? ‘I wouldn’t use those words’
Perhaps it’s the heat, but things in Westminster seem to have gone into overdrive. First Nadine Dorries quit, then Boris Johnson’s eyebrow-raising honours list was revealed and then the former Prime Minister resigned.
The Tories had just started thinking about a byelection in Ms Dorries constituency when Nigel Adams also announced his resignation, swiftly followed by Mr Johnson.
The former PM claimed the investigation into whether he misled Parliament over No 10 lockdown parties was a ‘witch hunt’ and accused The Privileges Committee of ‘bias’, likening it to a ‘kangaroo court’.
The committee is meeting today to conclude the inquiry – which is thought to have ruled that Mr Johnson lied to Parliament when he told MPs Covid rules were followed in Downing Street despite boozy parties taking place while social distancing restrictions were in place.
Today, Michael Gove denied that Boris Johnson had been ‘driven out’ out of Parliament telling ITV News he ‘wouldn’t use those words’. He said it will be up to MPs to determine the response to the Privileges Committee’s findings against Mr Johnson.
Labour are making hay while the sun shines. Deputy leader Angela Rayner – who was spotted at Parklife over the weekend – described Mr Johnson as a ‘coward’
“He could have defended himself, he could have gone to his constituents and fought the suspension, and he has decided he is not going to do that because he knows he is in the wrong,” the Ashton-under-Lyne MP told BBC Radio 5 Live.
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Weather etc
Tuesday: Sunny intervals. 28C.
Road closures: A676 Moor Lane, Bolton, southbound closed due to roadworks from A673 Marsden Road to Ormrod Street. Until June 13.
Trivia question: What was Jack Grealish wearing when City players emerged from their post-match party on Sunday morning?
Manchester headlines
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New boss: The new chief executive of scandal-hit Rochdale Boroughwide Housing has been announced. Amanda Newton will take over from interim chief executive Yvonne Arrowsmith in the Autumn. The housing provider was slammed following the death of Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old toddler who lived in an RBH property in the Freehold estate. His death was caused by prolonged exposure to mould at the family’s flat, a coroner found. In the wake of the tragedy, RBH staff were slammed for holding a ‘wholly unacceptable’ attitude towards refugees.
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Dangers: Police say they received ‘a number of reports’ about youths walking along the M62 over the weekend. Officers say this causes a ‘massive danger’ to them and to drivers on the road and have urged parents to make children aware of the dangers.
- Shareholder: Mike Ashley’s retail empire has bought a £75m stake in Bolton’s electricals giant AO. Frasers Group, which includes the likes of House of Fraser and Sports Direct, now holds almost 19 per cent of company’s shares making it AO’s second-largest shareholder. It is the latest in a series of deals for Frasers Group which included increasing its stake in Boohoo rival Asos. It has also been building up its shares in Manchester-headquartered fashion group N Brown. More here.
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STIs: Cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest ever recorded in the UK. And there has been a spike in syphilis diagnoses, according to the UK Health Security Agency. For the north west in the last year, the biggest increases have been seen in 20-24 and 15-19 age groups in 2022. Jon Dunn, Sexual Health Facilitator for the north west at the UKHSA says a 93 per cent increase in cases of gonorrhoea and a 15 per cent increase in cases of infectious syphilis are of ‘particular concern’. “Condoms are the best defence, but if you didn’t use one the last time you had sex with a new or casual partner, get tested to detect any potential infections early and prevent passing them on to others. Testing is important because you may not have any symptoms of an STI,” he said.
Worth a read
This fascinating piece from local democracy reporter Charlotte Green takes a look at the murky world of Oldham politics. It’s been described by one insider as ‘poisonous’ and you can see why.
In recent years, three successive leaders were dethroned amid swirling social media conspiracy theories. Political heads of Oldham council have experienced death threats and regular abuse and one had her car fire-bombed outside her home.
Meanwhile, councillors described being called ‘paedos’ by people on the doorstep and social media pile-ons which also targeted family and friends.
“I think a lot of what goes on in Oldham sends shivers down the spine of those outside of the borough,” one Labour councillor in a neighbouring Greater Manchester authority told Charlotte. So what’s at the heart of all these problems?
You can read the full feature here.
That’s all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email [email protected].
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The answer to today’s trivia question is: The kit that he wore for the match.
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