Improve Manchester

[RAB]

What quite simple, (or not, as the case may be) changes, could really make a big difference to your idea of Manchester in the future :

Pedestrianisation schemes ?

More theatres ?

Better Roads ?

More Hospitals / Doctors integrated into 'Polyclinics' ?

More Schools ?

Better Clubs / Bars / Restaurants ?

Shops you would like to see ?

Youth Facilities ?

even more items / ideas I haven't thought about yet...........................

[celeste]

I would like to see the Ancoats area, at the top of Oldham Street, Newton Street, Lever Street, really opened up and swished up with smart tree-lined avenues perhaps partly pedestrianised.

I would like also to see the Metro tram line going into Salford.

Piccadilly Gardens is flowerless, and grassless, and I would have that eyesore of a 'wall' knocked down and trellis put in its place with some greenery

Perhaps there we could have openair drama in the summer, or singing.

[arthurchappell]

improved public transport - an end to the horrendous one way traffic flow system in the city centre, ginnel gates torn down - making peoples houses look like fort knox from the back is a real eyesore - and i happen to like walking through ginnels which are public rights of way

[RAB]

I didn't know ginnels had gates

Or why or who would tear them down ?

[celeste]

ginnels is a really old word, not sure it could have originated in Yorkshire,  they are interesting if there are olde worlde type shops, but the 'LANES' in Brighton are wider and have modern shops

[arthurchappell]

many ginnels - back entries - often cobbled, have been fenced off and sealed with iron gates in suburban areas of the city as a deterant to them being used as urinals or assault areas  though few people are daft enough to walk a dark alley after dark - the locks are accessible to people owning houses that back onto the ginnels but no one else

[RAB]

Chorlton-[censored]-Hardy - to give it its full name - graces the south-western edge of Manchester beside equally well-to-do Didsbury and West Didsbury
Crime's gone down but it's still a problem in neighbouring areas. Alleygating the ginnels. (Ginnels being the alleys that run down the back of terraces, and alleygating being their closing off with gates. Big controversy: does it improve safety? Or does it create gated communities?)

In the past the gating of ginnels had been difficult to bring about.  However, new legislation means that Local Authorities now have the power to close ginnels if there is felt to be a need from residents.  There has been a programme of ginnel closures in Breightmet, Great Lever and Tonge and the Haulgh areas.
 

(mainly sourced from 'guardian.co.uk')

[arthurchappell]

it doesn't provide safety - it just shifts any danger elsewhere - as neiither mugger or victim can use the ginnels they take alternative routes and ambush points and the further away the attack victi is from potential witnesses the more danger they are in. Sealing ginnels can also be a fire hazard as the fire brigade may need to get through the gates to deal with the seat of a fire, rescue trapped people, etc.

[RAB]

OK, better add effective Policing of 'suspect' youth groups to the list

I seem to remember a Father of a child killed in Warrington, not so long ago, was killed in a spot which was  well-known by the Police to frequently attract kids in groups and yet they were allowed to continue to congregate and to vandalize property

They used to be 'dispersed' by the Police at one time, not sure what the policy is nowadays

 

[celeste]

OK, better add effective Policing of 'suspect' youth groups to the list

I seem to remember a Father of a child killed in Warrington, not so long ago, was killed in a spot which was  well-known by the Police to frequently attract kids in groups and yet they were allowed to continue to congregate and to vandalize property

They used to be 'dispersed' by the Police at one time, not sure what the policy is nowadays

 

[celeste]

Kids are streetwise these days, the police would have to be around regularly to frighten them off, as they would just move back when the police had gone.  They need something to do and somewhere  to go, what happened to youth clubs?  Perhaps there should be more sports clubs, attached to schools, perhaps schools should open up their gyms for after school activities which would be free.  Any suggestions RAB, AC?

[RAB]

....For a start I think their parents don't care very much !!

The police don't even attempt to bother to frighten them off, and don't have the resources, or the motivation anyway

Probably not enough youth activities that are supervised adequately and these can attract trouble makers in their own right, leading to poor attendance
Also, look at the one in Lymm, it's open once a week and is now subject to a greatly increased rent by WBC to the extent that it may have to close altogether
It's a White Elephant' now but it could be sold off to generate more business revenue by the local authority so it's not in their interest to subsidize it any longer

I don't know what the policy is in Manchester and District, or the funding set aside for recreational activities for youths, but I suspect there must be a reasonable chance of attracting funding from charitable sources in a sort of "business partnership in the community" if there will is there to help occupy the energies of youngsters 

The Youth Club in lymm could be funded by the Council selling, or renting, the plot to a business partnership on the proviso that it provides youth facilities on the ground floor and builds its own offices ontop 

I suspect educational establishments have legal requirements that prohibit opening their doors after school to the forces of the local community

[celeste]

Churches used to run youth clubs also, I don't know if they still do - perhaps they should, troublemakers can be barred using a couple of swarthy church members on the door - and no alcohol, any trouble - photograph usual suspects and put them in the paper or wherever they can be seen, perhaps a poster of some stocks, and pin their photo on it lol

[RAB]

......what self-respecting, self-conscious, street-wise kid with an 'image' to protect, would go anywhere within a million miles of anything remotely connected with the Church ? 

[celeste]

well they used to, if they start young, sometimes there is no other choice except to hang round on street corners,  my brother and his friends used to play football on a field near to where one of them lived.  The parks were also popular for kids 14/16 to meet and lark about - or play tennis and whatever games they do these days.

I remember we had a large front room with a table tennis table in and my brother used to bring his friends home to play (of course he wouldn't let me and my sister in - can't think why)


It really needs parents to start organising events or trips to keep the kids motivated and perhaps some lottery money could be used to make leisure centres cheaper and therefore more accessible.



There used to be a lot of amateur football teams playing at weekends on fields along Princess Parkway - perhaps they still do.