Manchester’s groundbreaking new Council leader | Bev Craig – Manc of the Month October 2021
Our Manc of the Month series is back, so let's talk about someone who's achieved a feat that nobody else in the city of Manchester has ever achieved before.
Our Manc of the Month series is back, and this time it’s the turn of another honorary Mancunian who’s breaking new ground.
We all know that Manchester is home to some special people, some born here and others drawn here – and after a bumpy year that effectively amounted to one big lockdown, its these special people that have inspired and led us through the tough times.
So, we decided to start a series that shines a light on those who should be celebrated, following on from our ‘The Mancs of the Year’ feature towards the end of 2020.
Manc of the Month officially kicked off in July 2021, with Marcus Rashford MBE, Manchester’s mural king Akse P-19, and local chef feeding the region’s vulnerable families Mary-Ellen McTague, all being given the plaudits they truly deserve – but this month, we’ve chosen someone who’s achieved a feat that nobody else in the city of Manchester has ever achieved before.
Her election as leader means that she will become both the first woman and the first openly-gay councillor to take up the role.
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Last night @McrLabour elected me as the new Leader of Manchester. I’m humbled to have the privilege to lead our fantastic city. Commiserations to the other great candidates @RahmanCllr @GarryBridges @Ekua4Hulme but Mcr Labour is strong & united. Manchester- We won’t let you down pic.twitter.com/DkmA2dhOam
Speaking after being appointed as leader earlier this month, Cllr Craig said: “It is the honour of my life to be elected and offered this chance to lead Manchester… committing to further regeneration of the city and continuing the commitment to a greener, cleaner, and more equal city.
“From Blackley to Wythenshawe, I am dedicated to making sure that residents can be proud to live in Manchester [and] now more than ever, we need to make sure Manchester isn’t forgotten in post-pandemic recovery”.
“I am committed to ensuring that Manchester is not left behind,” she concluded.
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Sir Richard Leese also said that he is looking forward to seeing Manchester go “from strength to strength under her leadership.”
Although not originally from Manchester, the 36-year-old Northern Irish councillor – who grew up on a council estate in Belfast – first came to the city to study and eventually graduated from the University of Manchester in 2007 with a degree in Politics and Modern History, before going on to gain a masters in Political Science.
She then continued her studies by doing a PhD exploring class representation and diversity in UK politics.
Bev Craig will take over from Sir Richard Leese on 1 December / Credit: Manchester City Council
But where did Bev Craig’s career in politics begin? And what are the matters she’s keen to represent and fight for? Well, she was first elected as Councillor for Burnage in 2011, and was then appointed as Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council in May 2021 – but before that, she spent four years as the Council’s executive member for adult services, health, wellbeing and inclusion.
She was also deputy chair of Manchester Health and Care Commissioning, and the co-chair of the Manchester Local Care Organisation.
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It’s believed that tackling the city’s affordable housing shortage, and improving health and social equality are likely to be high on Craig’s agenda when she assumes the role of Leader on 1 December, and this is backed up by the five main policies she ran when elected as Deputy Leader back in May, which she described as:
Fairer: Keep building more affordable housing, reduce poverty and support the vulnerable
Cleaner: Take action on litter and fly-tipping.
Safer: Call for more police to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour and safer roads for all.
Greener: Tackling the Climate Crisis, planting more trees, and investment in parks and green spaces.
Supporting Residents: Continue supporting local community groups, and the hundreds of individual residents I help each year.
Tackling the city’s affordable housing shortage, and improving health and social equality are just some of things expected to be high up on Bev Craig’s agenda in her new role | Credit: Twitter (@bevcraig)
Throughout much of 2020 and 2021, Bev Craig is known to have played a prominent role in Manchester’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, was also said to have been instrumental in launching Manchester as a Real Living Wage City earlier this year, and during her time as a Councillor, has also lead on LGBTQ+ issues for the city.
In recent weeks and months, Craig has been outspoken about the government’s decision to rescind the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift – saying it would throw “tens of thousands of Mancunians into despair this winter” and cost residents a combined £60 million.
She has also spoken publicly on Twitter about a number of matters, including everything from the Levelling Up plans for Greater Manchester and the north, to ways to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis, and has also condemned violence against women, while showing support to the recent ‘End Spiking Now’ / ‘Girls Night In’boycott and protests in the city by calling for “venues and the police to demonstrate they are actively doing all they can to keep people safe on a night out”.
Even before officially stepping into the role of Leader of Manchester City Council on 1 December, Bev Craig has already been breaking new ground, and the passion shown through her 10-year respected career as a Councillor indicates she isn’t slowing down any time soon.
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She’s only just getting started.
Featured Image – Manchester City Council
Feature
Grounded MCR – the Levenshulme community cafe crafting coffee and comfort food for a great cause
Emily Sergeant
Over within the grounds of one of Levenshulme’s most popular parks is a community cafe that’s doing things a little differently.
Starting off life as a little coffee trike back in 2021, and now based inside a bright-yellow shipping container in Levenshulme‘s Cringle Park, Grounded MCR CIC is a social enterprise that does more than just make you a brew.
Set up with the idea of creating a welcoming space for the whole community to gather, with a key focus on sustainability, Grounded serves up specialty coffee, lots of other hot and cold drinks, and yummy homemade food – much of which is grown by hand, on and around the container.
This is Grounded MCR / Credit: The Manc Group
Coffee beans sourced from a local roaster that pays farmers properly, tasty bakes on offer from a handful of local makers – including bread from the incredible Stockport-based charity, Pure Innovations – and dozens of free community events organised throughout the year are just a few of the reasons why Grounded goes above and beyond your typical cafe.
Sustainability – and affordability, especially amid the ongoing cost of living crisis – are two huge driving factors for Grounded, especially through their partnership with FareShare Greater Manchester and utilising the ‘Too Good To Go’ scheme.
By delivering and using surplus food that would’ve otherwise gone to waste, Grounded is able to keep their prices low whilst still creating some delicious scran.
The Levenshulme community cafe crafting coffee for a great cause / Credit: The Manc Group
Their ‘FareShare Fridays’ are hosted each week, where that morning’s delivery is dedicated to one specific dish and served up for just £1.
To top it all off, Grounded also works with vulnerable adults in honing their barista and hospitality skills, and is also in partnership with ‘Women in Probation’ too to ensure their impact goes further than just what comes in a cup or on a plate.
”We’ve worked hard to create a space that feels safe and welcoming for all,” Grounded declares in a statement on it’s website – and we think they’ve succeeded.
Finding Emily – the hit new romcom that really romanticises Manchester
Daisy Jackson
When news broke of a new romcom filmed and set in Manchester, forgive us for an eyebrow raise.
You see, when TV shows and films choose our city as a backdrop, it can sometimes get a little slapstick, a bit gimmicky, riddled with stereotypes (see: Jack Whitehall’s BRITs gags).
Either that, or the local sets are so aggressively styled for the screen, they’re barely recognisable as Manchester anymore (see: every Harlan Coben drama).
But then we kept catching glimpses of the Finding Emily cast and crew around town a couple of years ago, taking over iconic boozers and milling around legendary gig venues, and that sceptical eyebrow came down a peg or two.
So imagine our delight after seeing the film and finding a well-researched, authentically Manc, love letter to our city that actually romanticses what it’s like to live here in the present day – not a Hacienda stripe in sight.
The plot of Finding Emily follows Owen (Spike Fearn) on his mission to track down ‘Emily’, a girl he met on a night out who mistakenly wrong-numbered him, with the help of another Emily (Angourie Rice).
Throughout the film, the duo drink, dance, and dig for clues in all corners of the city, with backdrops that will be very familiar to those of us who live here.
There’s a bar crawl all along Canal Street, including a drag cabaret show at VIA; a job hunt in Piccadilly Records; a queue joined outside Rustica.
We see scenes set inside some of Manchester’s most beautiful spaces, like the Whitworth Cafe and the Sackville Street Building, and plenty of iconic cityscapes like the view from Deansgate station and the backdrop of the University of Manchester.
They even play darts in the Peveril of the Peak.
Finding Emily romanticises the less glamorous, more authentic side of the city too – Northern Quarter alleyways, a Fallowfield house party, a proper kebab on the Curry Mile, and an all-nighter in the Central Library.
While a lot of film crews hop over to leafy Didsbury to house their characters, our lead figures in the film instead live in terraces beneath the viaducts in Smedley, or in a converted mill apartment in Chorlton Mill.
It’s not only the location scouts that put in the work on Finding Emily – there’s also a respectable number of local characters and artists who pop up with cameos.
Antony Szmierek features heavily on the soundtrack, and appears in-person in the closing credits.
There’s a video game played by Owen’s brother with graphics designed by celebrated local artist Stanley Chow.
Anna Phylactic performs on stage on Canal Street, W.H. Lung headline a gig at Night & Day, Luke Una stands behind the decks as a disgruntled ‘No requests’ type of DJ, and Stockport’s beloved Blossoms perform at the cast’s graduation ball.
I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a film or TV show so perfectly capture Manchester before, celebrating all its beauty and all its edges. It’s not performative at all.
If you’re a Manchester local, Finding Emily is a must-watch. But even if you’re not, this is a modern romcom with likeable characters and plenty of charm.
Emily Sergeant -
29th October 2021 
