A small village in Wigan is having its moment in the spotlight.
08.08.2022 - 09:11 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
If Greater Manchester Police was a Premier League football team, they're a few points adrift of safety and facing relegation. The board sacked Ian Hopkins mid-season and in came the policing equivalent of Sam Allardyce.
Like Big Sam, Stephen Watson has a well-earned reputation for miraculous escapes. He did it at South Yorkshire Police.
Our new chief constable is really a rugby man but he appreciates a good metaphor whatever the sport: recent results have been great, team morale is good and, if the results keep coming and the upward trajectory is maintained, relegation will be avoided.
READ MORE: Did 'gang bosses' escape because cops were squabbling? The allegations rocking GMP
The results are impressive: 999 calls are being answered much more quickly, arrests have almost doubled, the number of people charged has risen sharply, response times have been slashed and the use of stop and search has soared. Whisper it, but almost all burglary victims are getting a visit from the police. This wasn't the case under the old 'manager'.
It feels like criminals, who were 'laughing ', are at long last feeling a bit of heat after years of austerity augmented by - and these are the words of the new chief in an interview with the M.E.N. - 'defeatist' and 'shameful' policies from those at the top who were too ready to blame cuts for poor, or even no, service.
Although those results and the current trajectory may see GMP lifted out of special measures imposed in December 2020, they only tell part of the story. They've been inspired by a cultural change inside Greater Manchester Police, what the £204,372-a-year chief constable likes to call 'back to basics'.
Rank-and-file cops have spoken out in favour of the new approach and the
A small village in Wigan is having its moment in the spotlight.
A drugs gang boss who peddled kilos of cocaine and heroin throughout Greater Manchester was caught out by WhatsApp messages he sent to others. Remi Merriman, 35, was at the centre of the trafficking ‘business’ and was involved in the selling of ‘wholesale’ quantities of class A drugs.
A property in Rochdale has had a huge amount of interest after it was put on the market earlier this week. Andrew Kelly, one of the largest independent estate agents in the borough, listed the four-bed home in Hall Fold, Whitworth for sale on Tuesday, August 16 - and ever since it has been swarmed with attention.
This map shows the homes across Greater Manchester at risk of flooding.
It's not often that you see patrons of a restaurant eating sand from a fake beach and sniffing each other's rear ends, but this is business as usual for Alfie's Island Café. Located on a large site in Timperley, the dog-friendly space is the creation of husband-and-wife duo Tony and Tania Golden - former owners of Central Bark Café.
Coronavirus infection rates have fallen in all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. But the decline in the virus comes as the vaccine efforts ramp up ahead of the autumn months, with one vaccine urging people to get jabbed and 'not worry what type of Covid vaccine they're getting'.
The UK Foreign Office have confirmed they are in contact with police in Manchester following the disappearance of three children from Wythenshawe who are believed to be with their dad.
The Met Office has warned of a possible 'danger to life' from flooding in an updated thunderstorm alert issued on Monday. The Greater Manchester region is braced for storms and heavy rainfall today as the recent heatwave comes to an end in spectacular style.
Greater Manchester boasts several prestigious towns and villages that are renowned for attracting some rather wealthy residents. From Premier League footballers and TV stars to esteemed businessmen and women, certain parts of our region have become hotspots for the rich and famous.
House hunters looking to buy in Greater Manchester can now expect to pay around £236,876 for a home, according to Rightmove's latest average house price data.
Leaders in Greater Manchester have joined the Mayor of London in condemning Avanti West Coast to cut the number of services to and from the capital. City-region mayor, Andy Burnham, leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig, and London mayor, Sadiq Khan, have penned a letter to the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, asking for an urgent meeting to restore the full timetable.
‘Not enough vaccines, test results delayed for days, and people cancelling Pride plans’ - monkeypox fears are building as the number of cases in Greater Manchester are on the rise.
Greater Manchester is set to sizzle in almost 30C temperatures this week as another heatwave sweeps Britain.
Britain is braced for another heatwave that will last longer than July's record-breaking hot spell. And while temperatures won't reach last month's scorching 43C, Greater Manchester will still be hotter than the Algarve.
A serial domestic abuser who threatened to kill his partner and held a knife to her throat was one of the criminals jailed in Greater Manchester this week.
From reservoirs to botanical gardens - online Reddit forum asked where people's top places to visit in Greater Manchester are... but is yours on the list?
The story of Ornella’s Kitchen begins 1850 miles away in the charming seaside village of Castel Di Tusa on Scilly's north coast. Located around 60 miles east of Palermo and 90 miles west of Messina, this tiny village, home to around 1000 people, is famous for its tuna fishing nets and delicious produce.
The number of kidnappings in Greater Manchester has risen by more than 70 per cent in a year. Latest Home Office figures show there were 579 such crimes recorded in 2021 - a massive 73 per cent increase on the 334 for 2020 and the highest number in the last decade.
Householders believed they were tradesmen who could be trusted to carry out work on their property. But these rogue traders left innocent members of the public out of pocket.
Greater Manchester’s new buses will be painted in an ‘iconic’ Mancunian colour scheme, the city-region’s mayor has said.