Stockport’s new urban garden

Good afternoon readers — welcome to our Monday briefing, and a warm welcome to the dozens of you who joined after reading our founder Joshi Herrmann’s passionate essay about why it’s time to wake up to the crisis in local news. He also set out how we’ll be lobbying for independent newspapers to work on a level playing field with the big conglomerates who own most of the local press. Many thanks for the dozens of shares and comments — if you haven’t taken a look yet, hit the link below. 

Over the weekend, our culture editor Sophie Atkinson looked at a radical experiment in housing in Hulme, the friction that emerges from shared living and whether a co-living model is the best way to ensure everyone can live happily. If you’d like to read the second part of that story, we’ll be publishing it on Wednesday morning for paying members only, so please hit the button below to join us. 

Today’s briefing takes a look at the latest development in the massive £1 billion regeneration programme in Stockport — a new urban garden and a shiny transport interchange. “These new connections will open up more opportunities for people to access jobs, skills and education, while supporting the regeneration of the area by attracting increased footfall and investment,” Andy Burnham told the press. But are the GMCA forgetting a key detail that will unlock Stockport’s future? That’s below.

‘I beg you to define me’

From today’s sponsor: What does this image tell you about Azraa Motala? The beautifully ornate lehenga says one thing, the trainers might say another. When Azraa first created a version of this self-portrait, it was so striking that the prestigious Chelsea College of Arts hung it as a super-size banner on the front of their building in London. Now, it can be seen as a stunning oil painting at Manchester Museum, hung in what the New York Times calls “the first permanent museum gallery in Britain to spotlight the South Asian diaspora.” Azraa hails from Lancashire and her painting, I beg you to define me, explores the “multi-layered identities of Lancashire-based British South Asian women”. Why did she leave parts of the work unfinished? Follow the story on YouTube or TikTok. And then plan your visit to the museum. 

🌧️ This week’s weather

Tuesday 🌦️ Showers in the morning, followed by sunny intervals. Feeling mild. Max 14°C.

Wednesday 🌧️ Cloudy and damp with outbreaks of rain. Max 11°C.

Thursday 🌧️ Breezy and mostly cloudy with patchy light rain. Max 12°C.

Friday 🌧️ Windy with a mixture of bright spells and heavy showers. Max 11°C.

Weekend 🌦️ Windy on Saturday with bright spells and heavy showers before a drier and calmer day on Sunday. Feeling cool with temperatures in low double figures.

You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook — daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.

The big story: Stockport’s new urban garden

Top line: Viaduct Park, Stockport’s new urban garden, and a new transport interchange opens to the public today after three years of construction and £140 million of investment. “It has that effect, doesn’t it?” Andy Burnham said at a press conference this morning. “When you walk through, straightaway, you think, this is an amazing place to be.”

The park is described as the “first of its kind” in the UK, with overhead fairy lights, play equipment, grass, flowers and space for events. Plus, there are plenty of features that make the park accessible — including public toilets, wayfinding lanes and tactile indicators to help the visually-impaired navigate the park.

• From April, a new cycle and walking path will connect the park with the Trans Pennine trail, giving people easy access between the town centre and nature.

• There are also plans to open up a new stretch of banks along the River Mersey to the public.

• This summer, a 14-storey block with 196 one and two-bedroom apartments and commercial space will also open.

Most unusually, it’s all built around a large hole looking down to the transport interchange below. Whether this is an amazing transport-themed design feature or a slightly strange gap where grass should be is probably a matter of taste.

The transport interchange is designed to accommodate 164 bus departures every hour and be fully accessible to encourage more people to use the Bee Network. It also has a walking route that connects it to the train station, providing easy access between the town’s transport networks.

Coming down the tracks: The interchange has been built in a way that could accommodate a new Metrolink line from Stockport into Manchester. The latest proposal has put forward the case for a North and South route, connecting the town to East Didsbury and Manchester Airport. Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester this morning, Burnham said: “We may be able to bring two together in tandem, one going north, one going south, we're just looking at that at the moment, and we will make a decision at the middle of this year”.

Spotlight on Stockport: All this comes as Stockport is garnering a greater national profile. The town was named the best place to live in the North West by The Sunday Times over the weekend, with judges assessing its schools, green spaces, high streets and transport. As the report put it:

“One of the things we really look for is places that are improving,” said Tim Palmer, one of the judges for the annual Best Places to Live Guide. “And we feel like Stockport is doing that in all sorts of ways, and doing it without losing its character.” The judges also lauded the town’s transport connections, even before the incoming boost from the new interchange. To quote Palmer: “You can get to Manchester (from Stockport) faster than you can from most other bits of Manchester.”

Context: Stockport is undergoing one of the UK’s biggest urban regeneration programmes, with £1 billion of investment going into new homes, office spaces, retail units, parks and transport.

Bottom line: The interchange’s first phase is essentially a step towards better transport links in Greater Manchester — part of Andy Burnham’s ambition to have a “London-style” joined-up network of trams, trains and buses. It “will play a key role in bringing prosperity to the town and its people in the future”, according to Burnham. But the decision on Metrolink might end up having a much more significant impact on the town’s long-term future.

Will you be visiting the Viaduct Park? And do you think Stockport is the best place to live in the North West? Let us know in the comments.

Pricing update: A reminder for our members: As of 6 April, the price of The Mill will be going up to £8.95 a month, or £89 for a full year. We’ve held our price constant for almost four years since we began publishing, but like everyone else we’ve seen our costs going up significantly due to the last couple of years of very high inflation. We think it’s really important to protect our staff’s standard of living, so we hope you will understand why we’re implementing this increase. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

And if you haven’t yet joined as a member, there’s still time to grab a year’s membership at the incredible price of £70. That works out at just £5.83 a month, giving you lots of extra articles and invites to our events.

Your Mill briefing

🎧 This morning, a district judge decided that Night & Day Café’s noise abatement notice would be upheld. The long-running saga surrounding the venue started in 2021 when Manchester City Council issued the notice following multiple noise complaints by a tenant in a neighbouring flat, who moved in during lockdown when clubs were shut. Night and Day appealed on the grounds it would kill the venue off by limiting its late night events, where it makes most of its money. Today’s decision tries to avoid that, by tweaking the notice to match a proposal put forward by Night & Day. Under the new plan, levels on a Friday and Saturday will be controlled by noise limiters. 

It seems a simple solution that shouldn’t have taken two and half years of wrangling (and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of legal fees) to reach. Why then, did all of that happen? Keep an eye out for our weekend read, and email Jack if you have any tips/info.

🌹 George Galloway hinted at a possible mayoral campaign last week, saying that he was considering standing against Andy Burnham in May. Galloway would have to stand down as Rochdale’s MP, a role he picked up a little over two weeks ago, to enter the race. He said Burnham has become too focussed on the city centre rather than the region’s outer boroughs. Rochdale’s council leader Neil Emmott said: “Just a fortnight after getting elected it simply beggars belief that Mr Galloway would consider casting aside the people of Rochdale so readily.” It’s open to question how serious he is, but there is little doubt he is looking to expand his influence in Greater Manchester. Over the weekend, local businessman Shahbaz Sarwar announced his candidacy in Longsight’s local election, running under Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain banner.

🚗 The latest salvo in Withinton’s low-traffic neighbourhood wars has been fired. The Mill learns that the scheme, which has divided residents, sparking protests and clashes in the area, may be about to get pulled. Over the weekend, a resident got in touch to say they’d heard the planters were being removed by the council. They say the council “has listened to the opposition — but ignored the 100+ residents who have come together in support, organising bike buses and a community cycle.” Know anything else about this? Get in touch.

🏡 We hear David Ashmore, Manchester City Council’s director of housing operations, is moving to Birmingham City Council. Ashmore, who lives in Solihull, took the job in 2021. His highlights include keeping a vital report — showing the council’s overreliance on B&Bs to house homeless families — from being shown to councillors, per our investigation into the city’s fight against homelessness.

💰 Bolton Council is currently owed nearly £45 million of council tax from households across the borough, according to The Bolton News. In February, the council agreed to raise the tax by 5%, and is preparing to make nearly £10 million worth of cuts. 

📰 And finally: Jay Rayner called a MEN piece on him replying to a tweet about a reported announcement about the Royal Family “astonishingly crap”. Rayner took issue with the piece’s original headline, since changed. “I didn’t ’speak out’ or hit back. I replied to a tweet,” he said. “Is it that slow a news day?” We’ll make sure not to write any stories about his tweets soon. Or indeed ever.

Home of the week

This spacious two-bedroom apartment is in a Grade II listed Victorian building with a communal rooftop garden and views of Deansgate and Castlefield. £250,000.

Our favourite reads

Workplace mental health service firm faces investigation — BBC

Health Assured, a Manchester-based company that provides workplace mental health support, is being investigated after allegations that its call handlers were not offering property support to vulnerable people. One man, upon calling the service with suicidal thoughts, was allegedly told to “go on a date”.

Mr Tinker vs the taxman — The New Statesman

Gary Tinker, a 64-year-old computer programmer from Stalybridge, is facing £300,000 in debt, as the result of a tussle with HMRC over decades of income tax he didn’t realise he should be paying. The debt has been chased aggressively — at one point, HMRC told him they would be “measuring how long it takes you to respond to us”.

How Britain’s Conservative establishment fought off a foreign media takeover — The Financial Times

An interesting look into how the Tory party kept politically-aligned papers, the Telegraph and Spectator, out of foreign control. The two titles argued that ownership by the Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI would threaten its editorial independence. Now, Rishi Sunak is pushing to change the law so that foreign entities can’t buy British news companies.

Our to do list

Tuesday

🍸 Rooftop cocktail bar Climat has sweeping views of the city centre and an ever-changing menu to keep up with seasonal produce. They’re currently offering a weekday lunch deal, where you can get two courses for £22. Book here.

✝️ The award-winning Broadway musical Sister Act is showing at the Palace Theatre until the end of March, and tickets are just £13.

Wednesday

👖 Ducie Street Warehouse will be playing Lana Del Rey’s melancholy, hazy album Honeymoon through big speakers while immersing you in complete darkness. The aim is to block out all visual stimuli to immerse you in the music. £11.

🌷 Platt Fields Market Garden is celebrating the beginning of spring with complimentary lunch from MUD Kitchen from 12pm, plus, yoga, sauna and plunge pool sessions, mosaics, gardening workshops and more. It’s free.

Thursday 

🎞️ Manchester Film Festival, one of the UK’s best festivals for indie filmmakers and the best place to see future award winners, is showing a selection of critically-acclaimed short films from around the UK. See the full programme here and get tickets here.

🌸 The Manchester Lit and Phil presents a new lecture from Professor James Hitchmough, who will be discussing how we can create meadows within bustling city centres in Cross Street Chapel. £15 for non-members.