TfGM is asking Manchester communities to transform its old yellow school buses
Schools and groups are being encouraged to submit their ideas for a chance to win a free decommissioned yellow school bus to transform into something new.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is giving away decommissioned yellow school buses to the local community for free this summer.
The transport group is encouraging individuals, schools, societies, sports teams and volunteer organisations from across the region to submit their ideas for a chance to transform an old bus into something new – whether it’s for reading spaces, quiet places or somewhere to meet new faces.
All entries will be judged on several criteria – including originality, creativity and benefit to the community.
Yellow School Buses are a service provided by TfGM for secondary school children in Greater Manchester, and are said to be “easy to spot” as a way of alerting road users that children will be getting on and off.
This new competition has been set up to run once again following the success of similar schemes in summer 2018 and 2019, where six buses were donated to various bidders.
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Individuals and organisations can now bid to #WIN one of several yellow school buses that will be decommissioned in July ✨
Check out @RedLaneSch awesome #wellbeing bus, created using a vehicle donated in 2019!
— Transport for Greater Manchester 🚲🚶🏾♀️ (@OfficialTfGM) May 17, 2021
In 2018, the first decommissioned bus was delivered to Greswell Primary School in Denton, who used lottery funding to transform the bus into an outdoor library that is used by both students and the wider community.
The following year, Red Lane Primary School in Bolton turned their donated vehicle into a ‘Wellbeing bus’ and currently use it as a dedicated space to provide social and emotional intervention for their pupils.
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Similarly, St. Stephen’s RC Primary School – another 2019 recipient – turned their bus into a reading area and tutoring place that has proven to be incredibly popular with pupils.
“Our yellow school buses are a fantastic service that allow children to get to school cheaply, safely and securely,” said Councillor Mark Aldred, Committee Chair at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
“But even when their life as a school service comes to an end, they can still be incredibly useful to communities.
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“This scheme has been hugely successful when we have run it previously and I’ve been impressed with not just the creativity, but also the impact that previous projects have had on crucial issues such as child literacy and mental wellbeing.
“I’m really excited to see what community-spirited and thoughtful schemes people come up with this year as we hopefully continue to emerge from the pandemic and return to normality”.
TfGM
Fancy winning your own yellow school bus? Interested groups have until Friday 18 Juneto submit their proposal online before the applications are considered and the winning entries announced.
This Manchester bar serves a bottomless cheese fondue with endless beer and wine
Georgina Pellant
There’s a bar in Manchester serving a bottomless cheese fondue with endless wine and beer, and it honestly sounds like the perfect treat.
While it might scream cosy winter night in, with a huge outdoor terrace, The Mews is also a firm favourite during the summer months.
Add in a board of melt-in-the-mouth charcuterie, springy pieces of garlic sourdough and a host of crunchy cheese biscuits, and you’ve got yourself the ideal afternoon if you ask us.
But there’s more. Alongside all that cheese and meat and bread, included in the price of The Mews’ bottomless fondue, cheese lovers can also enjoy 90 minutes of non-stop drinks.
Bottomless cheese fondue at The Mews on Deansgate in Manchester. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
Costing £37.50 each, included in the deal is a huge pot of melted Italian Fontina cheese served with homemade garlic croutons, sourdough crackers, and slices of British charcuterie.
You’ll also get to enjoy an hour and a half of endless pints of house pilsner and carafes of red or white wine to enjoy alongside.
Serving up to six people, the bottomless cheese fondue is available only when you pre-book, so make sure to get in touch ahead of your visit to let The Mews know that you’re coming.
If you’re not on the sauce, you can opt for the cheese fondue alone. Without the booze, it’s quite a bit cheaper at £25 for one, and £2.50 on top for any additional people who want to get stuck in.
Housed up on Deansgate Mews, just behind the main hustle and bustle of Deansgate, there’s plenty of space inside as well as a large, secluded terrace that is quite the suntrap (when the Manchester sun is shining).
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2025
Danny Jones
Oh, hey, didn’t see you there. Come looking for more top Manc tunage, have we? You’re in luck, because Greater Manchester just keeps pumping out top bands and artists all the time, hence why we do this.
If you’re new around these parts, first of all, welcome and secondly, the whole thing is very simple: every month, we round up some of the best talents coming out of 0161 and talk about why we like them. I know, groundbreaking stuff, right?
They don’t have to be born and bred in Manchester, but they do need to have made this their music home – the first the correct career decision they made, the second being working their way into our ears.
So, now all the housekeeping is done and dusted, let’s dive into some delightful new Manchester music, shall we?
Five Manc bands and artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. IST IST
This month we’re starting off with one of those Manchester bands that may not be new but still crop up for us at regular intervals to remind us of two things: first of all, that they’re brilliant and secondly, that they should have featured on our regular round-up of artists a long time ago.
We’re talking about IST IST, who returned with another live, multiple LP-spanning compilation (plus some extras) this past March, which we’ve had on plenty over the past month. It goes without saying that they sound brilliant live, and we feel bad for only just remembering how good and prolific they’ve been.
You always get plenty of New Order, but also White Lies and Editors; Future Islands, The National and lots of other baritone-driven bands that bring that element of melodrama to layer over the instruments themselves. ‘You’re Mine’ might be their biggest track, but ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Exist’ are also favourites.
2. Robbie Cavanagh
Now, we all know that country music is having a real moment right now and we, for one, couldn’t be happier about it, to be completely frank. Though arguably simplistic at times, it’s soulful, often impressively pared-back, and when something does impress you lyrically or technically, it sticks.
With that in mind, we recently realised that award-winning songwriter Robbie Cavanagh has been on somewhat of a comeback since 2023, and we hadn’t noticed until painfully recently. Returning after a six-year hiatus – bar some little ditties during lockdown – his latest project has some of his best work yet.
Fully tilting from folk into country and folk, the stunning vocalist belatedly blew us away with the bluesy single ‘Helpless’ and a gorgeous new collaboration with solo artist, Abby Gundersen (equally talented sister of Noah), but please still start with his 2016 Mahogany Session, where it arguably all began.
Named after Manchester city centre’s famously eclectic indie emporium, Afflecks Palace have never quite blown up in the way they way we thought they would when we first came across them years ago, but there’s still plenty of time and we’ll be damn it if they don’t deserve more regular listeners.
You’ll also be glad to know that, despite the name, they aren’t one of those trite, overly performative bands who wear a stereotypical Manc-ness on their sleeve that we sometimes come across; they’re just good and deserve a lot more recognition for their contribution to the neo-pysch genre.
As for where to start, we’ll admit we prefer their first album; ‘Forever Young’ is noodley and catchy, ‘Everything Is an Attempt to Be Human’ has those shoegazey guitars, but it just doesn’t get better than the incomparable ‘Pink Skies’, which still makes us feel some type of way – we just can’t quite describe.
We just love it. ‘Nu-Madchester’, or whatever you want to call it, its distinct sunniness never fails to tickle a part of our brains.
4. Findlay
Next up is Stockport singer-songwriter Findlay, who released more new music this past February, and has been making indie pop that ropes in plenty of other influences for more than a decade now.
That being said, she’s always experimenting with her sound, as her collabs with Blossoms, Miles Kane, Bill Ryder-Jones, Joris Delacroix have shown, and this latest iteration seems to have her tapping into everything from almost 50s and 60s female soul singers to slow electronic and more.
We love the smooth sexiness and sheer ambition of her latest single, ‘Stay Kinky’ and ‘Waste My Time’ always feels like a late-night chiller fit for music video set in a dingey bar, however, we still have a soft spot for her debut, ‘Your Sister’, with the riff that’s almost reminiscent of ‘Blockbuster’ by Sweet.
Last but not least, it’s the second time we’re featuring a returning artist and it comes in the form of young Alex Spencer, whose journey from busking around the streets of Greater Manchester to sold-out headlines shows and featuring on the likes EA Sports FC 25 (yes, FIFA) is a truly remarkable one.
The charming and still fresh-faced local lad from Droylsden is nothing short of proof that hard work and determination can pay off, and those ‘Bucket List’ dreams really are within reach. Obvious talent aside, this teenager has grafted his arse off and we couldn’t be more proudof how far he’s come already.
He last featured in this round-up back in April 2024 but even in the time between then, he’s released plenty and developed even further as musician, so much so that we’re not going to suggest which songs to try; instead, you can watch our most recent interview with him and relive his last year or so with us.
I’m Alex Spencer and This is my journey so far!
8 years of my music journey summed up in 1 minute 55😅 Thankyou to everyone who’s followed my journey so far, to anyone new or to anyone who doesn’t know my story, I made this video to show where it all started and how I got here❤️ pic.twitter.com/Hi3W7MHMxX
So, the next time you hear someone foolishly complaining that the Greater Manchester music scene ‘isn’t what it once was’, you can go right ahead of show them these bands and artists.
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In fact, you could just point them in the direction of this very page and Audio North, in general, as we do this round-up every month and plenty more every week, meaning you’re headphones never dry up.
For instance, you can check out which Manchester bands and artists we were listening to back in April, both new, current and old, down below. We’ll see you again very soon.
Emily Sergeant -
21st May 2021 
