Breaking in bid for
Ancoats is making a strong case for being included in the central wards
LIKE all cities, Manchester’s boundaries have changed plenty over the years.
In fact, go back far enough and Manchester was a parish of ‘the hundred of Salford,’ an ancient division of the historic county of Lancashire.
Usually, tweaks to borders reflect an increase in population and economic activity.
And nowhere in the region is changing faster than Manchester city centre, where skyscrapers are popping up all over the place and the number of residents is expected to hit 100,000 by 2025.
But what counts as ‘Manchester city centre’ in 2021 and why is it important?
Traditionally, the city centre has been used to describe everywhere within the inner ring road, a tight area of less than two square miles.
It includes places like Deansgate, Piccadilly and Victoria station and St Peter’s Square that are indisputedly in the city centre.
Inevitably, however, that definition is becoming more blurred. In every direction the city centre is pushing outwards, to the south through Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock and to the west through Trafford and Salford.
One residential scheme currently under development on the other side of the River Irwell is even being marketed as ‘Uptown Manchester’ – even though its postcode is in Salford. In the north and east, the city centre expansion has been particularly successful.
Ancoats and New Islington are now two of the most popular neighbourhoods for new residents, having been transformed from an industrial wasteland into a hipster paradise filled with trendy apartments, coffee shops and restaurants.
For the purposes of administration by Manchester city council, they are in a ward with Beswick, split off from the city centre by Great Ancoats Street.
But for some local councillors and campaigners, that traditional boundary is starting to create some headaches and look increasingly artificial.
They believe more needs to be done to bring Ancoats and New Islington in line with the other city centre wards, Piccadilly and Deansgate.
One reason is policing. Greater Manchester Police divides the region up into wards of its own and, currently, Ancoats does not come under the city centre.
“My bugbear is police resourcing,” Emma Taylor, the Labour councillor for Ancoats and Beswick told the M.E.N.
“GMP have got recognised ward boundaries and the neighbourhood teams work off them.
“We did get some funding here and there to get more patrols and neighbourhood officers.
“But it wasn’t sustainable long term.” Coun Taylor references Cutting Room Square, the heart of the ‘new’ Ancoats which is home to the Hallé Orchestra, pizza hotspot Rudy’s and craft beer specialists Seven Brothers, as a particular problem.
During warmer lockdown days, it has become a favourite spot for crowds of people to gather and drink outdoors.
But residents have complained it has also brought anti-social behaviour, with reports of people urinating in the street, taking drugs, playing loud music and leaving litter.
When outdoor hospitality reopened last summer, the M.E.N reported on a nasty incident that saw men brawling in the street for several minutes, using furniture as weapons.
“Last spring we got more [policing] resource on a Friday and Saturday night for Cutting Room Square,” said Coun Taylor.
“But it’s not just Friday and Saturday night, we have week nights as busy as any other urban area.
“Ancoats is seen as the city centre and it’s overdue neighbourhood officers to make sure it’s adequately staffed.
“We had the city centre boundary change at the council in 2018 and we might need to look at it again in the not too distant future.
“There’s still more to be done.” Such is the pace of change, that Coun Taylor says the number of potential
voters in her ward has increased by more than 2,000 people in just a year.
And the evolving demographic could lead to political change.
The M.E.N understands there is an increasing fear in Manchester Labour that the Lib Dems could take a seat in or around the city centre. Ancoats and Beswick, in particular, looks vulnerable following a number of clashes with residents over council policies.
The £9m revamp of Great Ancoats Street went down badly with many – not just because the council decided to remove cycle lanes in favour of alternative routes elsewhere, but because many don’t believe the council delivered what they promised.
Perhaps even more damaging has been the town hall’s high-profile battle over its plans for the former Central Retail Park.
The authority bought the site in 2017 for £37m, a price said to be one of the highest ever paid in the city centre.
The council sees it as a key ‘gateway’ site connecting Ancoats, the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly and the long-term ambition is to develop it into an office-led neighbourhood. But in the meantime, the council lodged a planning application to use the site as a 440space car park.
It sparked a community campaign, Trees Not Cars, led by local residents who want to reduce the amount of traffic in the area.
The planning application was approved, despite Trees Not Cars attracting almost 10,000 signatures to a petition opposing the move.
The car park row has gone all the way to court and a Freedom Of Information request submitted by Trees Not Cars recently revealed it has already cost the council more than £50,000.
It is in the shadow of these battles that Marcia Hutchinson is standing as the new Labour candidate for Ancoats and Beswick in the upcoming election.
She agrees Ancoats should be considered part of the city centre.
“It should be interesting to see the result of the [ongoing] Census,” said Marcia.
“If the population keeps growing in Ancoats as it has in the last five years, it could become it’s own ward.”
Alan Good, the Lib Dem candidate for Ancoats and Beswick, is an Ancoats resident and he agrees that the area has become a city centre council ward in all but name.
“Culturally and economically, the demographic for the city centre in Piccadilly is quite similar to Ancoats and New Islington,” he said.
“I don’t think people know about ward boundaries.
“I don’t think people look at Great Ancoats Street as the dividing line where the city centre ends.”
A council spokesperson said: “Manchester city council works in partnership with Greater Manchester Police and will support them to assess changing demands as the city grows.”
Superintendent Zac Fraser from Greater Manchester Police, said: “Ancoats and the city centre are led through the same GMP Senior Leadership Team as the overarching City of Manchester Command Area.
“The team operate in close partnership with Manchester city council to balance competing demands of all localities to serve the community.
“There is a joint understanding with partners that the continued development of Ancoats and growing night time economy has brought different policing requirements to the area over the past few years.”
“GMP already has an existing layered policing response in place directly related to this, which involves areas of Ancoats being included in Operation Custodian the policing of the night time economy on a Friday and Saturday night.”