The Mancunian Way: The horror of gentrification

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Hello

Gentrification. It's a topic we return to time and time again in the Mancunian Way.

Who are the winners and losers when a city such as Manchester undergoes the kind of rapid transformation we're currently seeing? What happens to the working class when well-paid professionals move in and the prices start to soar?

They're important questions which we're probably not doing enough to answer at the minute. And it's an issue given a paranormal twist in the play 2:22 A Ghost Story^[2], now showing at The Lowry.

John Shammas went along to review it, on Halloween appropriately, and used the opportunity to have his say on the gentrification debate. Using the example of Levenshulme^[3], which recently hit the headlines after the Sunday Times reviewed wine bar Isca, and its £10 cabbage^[4], John concludes the south Manchester suburb is currently enjoying the best of both worlds.

"Now Levenshulme is an interesting place," writes John. "You can pay north of £6 for a gorgeous pint of craft beer at the lovely Nordie.

"And then, a few doors down at one of the still-standing Irish pubs a pint of Stella remains approximately £3.20 and can be enjoyed while watching live sport. Both are equally lovely experiences in my view – but the fact that both experiences are available so close together is remarkable."

The play, which is showing until November 4, sounds good as well, by the way.

Kind of blue

What's bright blue, 16-stories tall and has a name that means 'gathering' in Latin? It's Manchester city centre's latest swanky office block^[5] obviously.

Plans for Colloco, on New Quay Street, were unveiled yesterday by developer HBD. And they're certainly eye-catching.

Blue glazed bricks cover much of the exterior, while a huge roof terrace and pavilion sits atop the block. In a classic example of developer-speak HBD say the design will 'celebrate the proportions and order of Victorian warehouse architecture and the honesty and grit of industrial exposed structure, whilst introducing contemporary materials and colours to create the new warehouse aesthetic'.

Amateur sleuth denied justice by court backlogs

An interesting case in Stockport^[6] has laid bare the impact of widespread backlogs in the court system. After a break-in at his Heaton Mersey home in May 2021 John Macauley turned amateur sleuth to track down the suspect.

Within 15 hours of the crime he had the name of the alleged burglar and CCTV evidence of his wife's bank card being used at local shops. He was even able to tell police when the suspect was due to at the chemist to collect his methadone.

The suspect was arrested and admitted fraud in connection with the bank cards, but denied burglary. A trial date was initially set for February 2022 at Manchester Crown Court^[7], then delayed until November that year.

But when no court was available the case was put back again until January 2024, almost three years after the crime took place. And now it won't be going ahead at all... because the suspect died last month.

Last month the backlog at crown courts hit a record high with more than 64,000 trials waiting to be resolved as the justice system continues to feel the impact of widespread cuts, covid and the barristers' strike. Responding to the figures Lubna Shuja, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said the situation had 'spiralled out of the control' and warned it would 'continue to get worse, not better'.

Salvage hunters

As much as £20bn could be available to fund a 'modern railway for the 21st century'^[8] between Liverpool and Manchester using the money saved from scrapping the Northern leg of HS2^[9], Andy Burnham^[10] has suggested. The Greater Manchester mayor said he was hopeful after meeting with Rail Minister Huw Merriman that the region's leaders could 'salvage something' from the decision by Rishi Sunak to cancel the Manchester and Crewe section of the high speed line.

The Government's controversial 'Network North' document promised that with the £36bn saved from HS2, some £12bn would be spent 'to better connect Manchester to Liverpool'. But Mr Burnham told a press conference in response to the government's U-turn on railway ticket office closures yesterday that it would in fact be £16bn of government money for the project.

This is because £4bn had already been earmarked for links between the two cities in 2021's Integrated Rail Plan, where Boris Johnson's government sparked anger with its scaled-back plan for rail links in the North. And the mayor said Rail Minister Huw Merriman was also open to making more funding available for the scheme using the principle of 'land value capture', where the building of new infrastructure increases the value of the land which is then used to pay for the projects themselves.

Mr Burnham said: "So now we've got £16 billion to play with. And that's a real positive bit of news.

"Beyond that, [Huw Merriman] also indicated a willingness to really work with us around the place-based regeneration that the right railway could bring to city centre Liverpool, Warrington, Manchester Airport^[11] and Manchester Piccadilly.

"We confirmed that our ambitions remain a station at Manchester Airport and an underground station at Manchester Piccadilly, and the Minister said he was open to the idea of land value capture playing a part in that. So can we make the £16 billion [into] £20 billion for instance, or even a little more so that we can achieve the ambitions that Liverpool have, Warrington have, the airport and ourselves in Manchester, in Manchester city centre^[12], so it was a positive meeting."

Quids in...

If you're eating out this winter you might be asked to add an extra quid to your bill. It's part of a drive to help raise money for people facing homelessness.

Several well-known Manchester restaurants have signed up to the campaign, led by the charity StreetSmart, including the city's only Michelin-starred restaurant, Mana, as well as steak connoisseurs Hawksmoor, and Tariff and Dale in the Northern Quarter^[13].

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Weather etc

Thursday: Light rain, 11C.

Rail works: Replacement buses are running instead of Northern trains between Bolton^[16] and Manchester on November 5 due to engineering works.

Manchester headlines

• Cannabis farm: Three 'key players' of an organised crime group - two from Rochdale - have been jailed after detectives smashed a £20,000 cannabis farm. Mohammed Qabir and Darren Newey travelled into Accrington in Lancashire to set up and run the cannabis factory, police said after they were locked up.