Manchester City Centre

walking through picaddily gardens the other day. there were so many homeless people, in every doorway or sleeping on benches. a lot of them were completely out of it. the city centre is getting worse for it and you can see people openly selling drugs ( has always happened) in picaddily gardens in the middle of the day. the centre has turned into such a shithole.
I walked from Piccadilly down past the arndale to shambles square yesterday and couldn't believe how bad it was. So many people just lead on the floor utterly wasted on something, groups of people larey as anything who looked off their heads, it was a very unpleasant place. Topped of with Elvis singing and darth Vader playing the piano.
 
A lot of them are "professional beggars". Its funny that when i go in early for work i hardly see any, as soon as it hits 7am they all come out. They make the doorways look as if they've been sleeping rough all night then wait for the rush hour foot fall.
These people need arresting because it takes money and help away from the genuine homeless people on the streets.
 
A lot of experts on this thread.

One even encouraging vigilantes. He must have loved those Purge films.
 
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...chester-city-centre-12870520#ICID=FB-MEN-main

This is a very interesting read about the current spice problems.

Thanks Jake for the link. Also, it's a bit worrying that there seems to be an explosion in the number of homeless and the Spice Epidemic since the devolution of 6 billion of health funding to Greater Manchester. The timing may well be coincidental but there was always a risk with giving the Councils a lot more funding.
 
Thanks Jake for the link. Also, it's a bit worrying that there seems to be an explosion in the number of homeless and the Spice Epidemic since the devolution of 6 billion of health funding to Greater Manchester. The timing may well be coincidental but there was always a risk with giving the Councils a lot more funding.
in the last 6 years mental health services has lost 7000 psychiatric nurses and one third of all there in-patient beds, there is currently a brand new 80 bed psychiatric unit (Grafton unit) at the MRI sat empty because they don't have the funds to run it, this has not just happened it has been starved of funding ever since the Tory's have been in power
if you're looking for someone to blame I'd start by looking at the cuts to mental health services by the Tory's.
 
in the last 6 years mental health services has lost 7000 psychiatric nurses and one third of all there in-patient beds, there is currently a brand new 80 bed psychiatric unit (Grafton unit) at the MRI sat empty because they don't have the funds to run it, this has not just happened it has been starved of funding ever since the Tory's have been in power
if you're looking for someone to blame I'd start by looking at the cuts to mental health services by the Tory's.

I''m not t really looking for somebody to blame. It's just been noticeable how many extra homeless people there has been in the centre of Manchester in the last 12 months. Problems will have built up over time like you say but more could have been done in the last year when problems have become very visible.

It's not just the Government that wastes money in the NHS. I know of a local Manchester Trust who hands big contracts to the private sector without going to tender. Thus depriving their Community of the chance of achieving better value for money and avoiding damaging cuts to services.

There is certainly a shortage of nurses in much of the NHS and Mental Health has seen a lack of investment. However, If a big new ward has been built that can't be opened then the issues will be more than just increasing funding. There's clearly been poor planning.
 
There is a home for every single "homeless person" in Manchester. They could all be housed in a month. There are people I know, via work, who live on the streets and have one of the new flats near Pottery Lane. Fantastic new big flats. There are people I know who beg in Manchester who live in a city centre flat. They give the impression of being homeless.

Anybody who thinks they are helping the homeless by giving them money are fuelling the problem. Give it a homeless charity instead.

Begging needs to be dealt with. Piccadilly is a cesspit.
 
There is a home for every single "homeless person" in Manchester. They could all be housed in a month. There are people I know, via work, who live on the streets and have one of the new flats near Pottery Lane. Fantastic new big flats. There are people I know who beg in Manchester who live in a city centre flat. They give the impression of being homeless.

Anybody who thinks they are helping the homeless by giving them money are fuelling the problem. Give it a homeless charity instead.

Begging needs to be dealt with. Piccadilly is a cesspit.
Have you reported these people to the relevant authority?
 
It's not just becoming an increasing problem in Manchester. It's the same in London and the satellite towns. It's a problem in places like Finchley, Bounds Green, Wood Green, Finsbury Park etc..
 
Have you reported these people to the relevant authority?

Yes mate. They're both being dealt with by our company and partners. Bit of a corporate answer but regarding the guy living on the streets I think he does not have the capability to sustain a tenancy without support, which he gets as much as can be afforded, and the beggar will just move away from the building as our powers are limited once away from the neighbourhood of his tenancy.

I truly believe it's time for begging to be clamped down on. It's getting beyond endemic.
 
These days, living away from Manchester, I visit the centre for watching City, nights out, gigs, stuff like that - purposeful visits - but recently I came to stay for 2 full days and nights in a hotel as a 'tourist'. It was quite a novel experience in a city I am originally from, you see it in a different light.

One thing that struck me, Manchester has absolutely fuck all central green space!! I wanted to enjoy an outdoor lunch in some of the welcome sun we had recently and ended up fleeing Sackville St gardens to sit on a bench in St Peters Sq. Why is Manchester so woefully un-green?!
 
These days, living away from Manchester, I visit the centre for watching City, nights out, gigs, stuff like that - purposeful visits - but recently I came to stay for 2 full days and nights in a hotel as a 'tourist'. It was quite a novel experience in a city I am originally from, you see it in a different light.

One thing that struck me, Manchester has absolutely fuck all central green space!! I wanted to enjoy an outdoor lunch in some of the welcome sun we had recently and ended up fleeing Sackville St gardens to sit on a bench in St Peters Sq. Why is Manchester so woefully un-green?!
City centre has plenty of green spaces although many are hidden you just have to know where they are!!

Sackville Street
Parsonage Gardens
Angel Meadow
Castlefield
Piccadilly Gardens (but I definitely wouldn't recommend it)
Freight Island
Ancoats(after a major refurbishment)

Those are the ones I can immediately think of
 
These days, living away from Manchester, I visit the centre for watching City, nights out, gigs, stuff like that - purposeful visits - but recently I came to stay for 2 full days and nights in a hotel as a 'tourist'. It was quite a novel experience in a city I am originally from, you see it in a different light.

One thing that struck me, Manchester has absolutely fuck all central green space!! I wanted to enjoy an outdoor lunch in some of the welcome sun we had recently and ended up fleeing Sackville St gardens to sit on a bench in St Peters Sq. Why is Manchester so woefully un-green?!
There’s a green space at old trafford most match days.

Around the midfield area.
 
City centre has plenty of green spaces although many are hidden you just have to know where they are!!

Sackville Street
Parsonage Gardens
Angel Meadow
Castlefield
Piccadilly Gardens (but I definitely wouldn't recommend it)
Freight Island
Ancoats(after a major refurbishment)

Those are the ones I can immediately think of
Picadilly Gardens? come on :D

Parsonage is a good suggestion, i forgot that. Sackville was ok, felt sketchy but fine i suppose. Angel meadow is a trek for a butty on a lunch break!

I think your list is stretching it a bit, for central green space. Picadilly G should fill that remit, but it doesnt.
 
One thing that struck me, Manchester has absolutely fuck all central green space!! I wanted to enjoy an outdoor lunch in some of the welcome sun we had recently and ended up fleeing Sackville St gardens to sit on a bench in St Peters Sq. Why is Manchester so woefully un-green?!
As much as I agree that town is pretty shite and full of wrong uns, I'm struggling to think of many city's where there are big GREEN spaces, most places have big concrete squares of which town has quite a few, the Piccadilly gardens debate is as old as time, no doubt if the internet was going in the 70s and 80s folk would have been complaining about the gardens being full of pissheads and perverts and complaing about the eyesore bus station.
 
Picadilly Gardens? come on :D

Parsonage is a good suggestion, i forgot that. Sackville was ok, felt sketchy but fine i suppose. Angel meadow is a trek for a butty on a lunch break!

I think your list is stretching it a bit, for central green space. Picadilly G should fill that remit, but it doesnt.
Fuck knows what the council are going to do with Piccadilly Gardens. They've been trying to sort it out for years but it seems to be getting worse. Every time I walk though there it's like a scene from The Walking Dead!

They have done a good job with the freight Island park though next to Piccadilly train station. It a lovely little park with lots of things to do for kids. My lad loves it there.

The City centre is actually getting bigger. I lived in Hulme between 2006-2019 just off Chester Road near The Mancunian Way roundabout and that was seen as the start of the city centre. I saw Beectham Tower being built.

Now that part of Chester Road right down to the dual carriageway next to Cornbrook tram stop has just been consumed by apartment blocks. The sprawl has been Incredible so I suppose the parks in Hulme could be classed as city centre green spaces now
 

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