MULE Friday round up: a summary of other stories from Manchester

Article published: Friday, December 4th 2009

Here at MULE we simply don’t have the resources to report on every interesting and ridiculous story we come across from around the Greater Manchester area. So from now on we’ll be providing a weekly round-up every Friday of those little things we didn’t get to cover.

Monday

ID-Day Demo

Manchester NO2ID staged two demonstrations to coincide with the launch of the ID card scheme trial in Manchester.

The first was outside the Printworks, where MP and Undersecretary of State Meg Hillier was visiting.  The second was at Westminster House on Portland Street, the location where applications for the (currently) voluntary cards will be processed.

Home made explosives found

A man was arrested after a number of homemade bombs were discovered in Atherton.  The first was found near Lidl supermarket, a second discovered on a fence and a third in a nearby car park.

On Wednesday a further two devices were discovered at two separate addresses and a second man was arrested.

On Thursday two men were charged. They were named as Trevor Shawcross and Neil Harper; both were charged with four counts of possessing explosives under the Explosive Substances Act.

Tuesday

Job losses at oil plant

Around 20 workers from PDM Group face redundancy just before Christmas.

Agri Energy, who purchased the company three weeks ago, announced that the cooking oil refinery would close on 18 December.

Unite’s regional organiser, Cathy Rudderforth, told a local newspaper that she believes the workers will have a good case for unfair selection for redundancy under employment laws set up to protect workers.

City top spenders

Manchester City have topped the list of spending on agents fees, forking out over £12 million after bringing in the likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Joleon Lescott, Gareth Barry and Roque Santa Cruz over the summer. Champions Manchester United spent just over £1.5 million to agents in the same time period.

Wednesday

Council Chambers protest

Campaigners for Ewing Primary School in West Didsbury unrolled a banner in the Council Chambers on Wednesday as the school’s closure was discussed. Councillor Shaw, a governor at the school, said it would be “a sad decision” and that he was sceptical of the consultation process.

Brothel boss jailed

David Greenwood was jailed for 20 months after he admitted owning three brothels in the Manchester area. His solicitor, Elizabeth Jane Nicholls, had an interesting defence. She argued that brothels in Greater Manchester “operate with the co-operation of the police” and that her client had been “led to believe that if these premises were in run in a certain way there would be no prosecution”.

According to Manchester Evening News Miss Nicholls told the court: “It is a truth that is undoubtedly universally known but little acknowledged in these courts that these parlours are well-known to the police and operate with the co-operation of the police. What is effectively happening is de facto licensing.”

Manchester gets London’s casts off

A number of ‘new’ trains to be used to ease overcrowding on Manchester trains will come from the recently upgraded Thameslink line in London.

Thursday

Police overspend leads to job losses

Greater Manchester Police is having to make 300 officers redundant after bosses overspent by its £560 million annual budget £5 million. The cuts will leave GMP with around 7,900 officers – falling further behind the target of 11,000 set by ex-Chief Constable Mike Todd in 2004.

Greenfield threat

Salford City Council is coming under attack after after announcing plans to build over 1,000 homes on a greenfield site. 50 acres at Burgess Farm in Walkden have been earmarked for a development of mainly top end houses.

About 120 people attended a public meeting at which council officers presented the proposal. A report says the bulk of the houses will be of a “very high quality design and construction to address the shortage of aspirational housing in Greater Manchester”.

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Comments

1. Some good news at least…. 300 fewer cops in Manchester!

   Comment by Betty on December 4, 2009 at 8:35 pm

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