A new anti-spiking partnership inspired by the students behind Manchester’s Girls Night In protest was announced by Andy Burnham and Sacha Lord as part of the city’s new Night Time Economy strategy yesterday.
The pair both met with local students last year after they organised a collective boycott of Manchester’s nightclubs in October, held in response to an alarming increase in reports of spiking – sometimes in drinks, sometimes, it was alleged, using a needle.
In that meeting, Manchester students put forward their own experiences of feeling unsafe and successfully persuaded the pair to adopt a new, zero-tolerance policy on spiking.
Now, six months later, it seems that that policy is coming to fruition.
Speaking to a packed room full of hospitality leaders from across the city and its ten boroughs on Thursday, Mr. Burnham officially announced the launch of the new anti-spiking partnership as part of Greater Manchester’s new Night Time Economy Strategy.
The mayor appealed to businesses to work alongside him to crack down on the harassment and abuse that has so often become a normal part of a night out, as he stressed that much more still needs to be done to enable people to feel safe – especially between the hours of 6pm and 6am.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said: “Greater Manchester [is] pioneering a different conversation, particularly about women and girls’ safety out and about at night time because there is more to do on this.
“Sacha and I took a suggestion from students at the University of Manchester to bring through an anti-spiking partnership and you’ll see reference to that in the strategy being launched today.
“We’d like to work with more of you to build out the idea of that, whether we can provide more testing on sites, so that we can protect people who fear they may have been a victim in that way.
ADVERTISEMENT
“That’s an important thing that we can do and we look forward to working with more of you on that.”
It was suggested, following that meeting with Manchester students last year, that the new anti-spiking strategy could see anti-spiking tests rolled out to venues – giving victims more surety in the moment that they have been spiked, as well as supporting as evidence of spiking if they choose to take the perpetrator to court at a later date.
However, that particular suggestion does not appear to have made it into the strategy – for now, at least, with Burnham seemingly appealing to venues to back the need for more on-site testing.
Still, there are some good processes being put in place to improve overall safety in the region.
ADVERTISEMENT
By 2024, there is a plan to create more ‘safe haven’ spaces for people on a night out who may have had too much to drink, feel vulnerable, need someone to talk to, or even just need somewhere to charge their phone so they can get home safely.
Also, subject to funding, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will look to offer training to workers in the sector to better identify bad situations and help keep vulnerable people from coming to harm.
Image: Girls Night In Manchester
Mr. Burnham also touched on a campaign launched earlier this year, called ‘Is this ok?’ designed to make men in particular question how appropriate their ‘banter’ really is.
He said: “We are, if I’m being very direct, speaking to men, lads and boys in the city region in a way that we should have done in the past.
“We need to do much more going forward and that is to challenge behaviour that sometimes passes for what they call banter or something like that.
ADVERTISEMENT
“[It] is fundamentally unacceptable and it’s about being clear about what we won’t accept anymore when it comes to women feeling intimidated or [being] harrassed when out and about in Greater Manchester.”
It’s a huge step in the right direction – and a clear sign that attitudes around the issue have undergone a major shift in recent years.
Royal Mail fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets
Emily Sergeant
Ofcom has fined Royal Mail a whopping £21 million for failing to meet its delivery targets in the last financial year.
Each year, it’s the watchdog’s job to look at and measure Royal Mail’s delivery performance against nationwide annual delivery targets, and for the 2024/25 season, the company was required to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days.
If Royal Mail misses its annual targets, Ofcom will first consider evidence of any ‘exceptional circumstances’ beyond the company’s control, and whether it would have achieved its targets had those events not occurred.
However, even after accounting for extreme weather events, Royal Mail was still found to have fallen short of its targets… and this time, they’ve been fined their highest sum so far.
We have fined Royal Mail £21m for missing its 2024/25 delivery targets, without justification.
The company must now urgently publish, and deliver, a credible improvement plan.
This is the third time in a row that Ofcom has found the company to be in breach of its regulatory obligations, after it was first fined a substantial £5.6m in November 2023, and then a further £10.5m in December 2024.
Royal Mail only delivered 77% of First Class mail and 92.5% of Second Class mail on time between April 2024 and March 2025.
Ofcom says it has therefore decided that the company breached its obligations by failing to provide ‘an acceptable level of service’ without justification, and took ‘insufficient and ineffective’ steps to try and prevent this failure.
“Hiding behind the pandemic as a driving factor in failures at Royal Mail does not cut it.”
Royal Mail has been fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets / Credit: Royal Mail
The watchdog says this is likely to have impacted millions of customers who did not get the service they paid for.
“Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp,” explained Ian Strawhorne, who is the Director of Enforcement at Ofcom.
“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better.
“Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency, and that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.
“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon. If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”
Featured Image – Royal Mail
News
Thousands of elderly and disabled people to get free 24-hour bus travel across Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people in Greater Manchester are set to benefit from round-the-clock bus travel for free.
Currently, as part on an ongoing pilot scheme, people with a Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)-issued concessionary travel pass have free unlimited travel on Bee Network buses between 9.30am and midnight during the week, and all day on weekends and public holidays.
The rule was lifted in August on a trial basis for a month, meaning older and disabled residents in Greater Manchester had access to unlimited free bus travel any time between the allocated hours.
During the August trial, more than 100,000 journeys were made by older and disabled people – with up to 6,000 people a day making use of the pilot.
But now, after proving to be a huge success, the pilot is being extended even further, so that 400,000 eligible residents will now get free bus travel 24-hours a day, seven days a week, starting from 1 November.
If you travel with a TfGM-issued concessionary travel pass, from 1 November you’ll be able to use it on #BeeNetwork buses before 9.30am as part of a second month-long trial.
As well as free early-morning bus travel, during the trial starting in November, eligible residents will be able to board the Bee Network’s night buses for free too.
TfGM says allowing concessionary pass holders to travel at any time will ‘better connect’ them to healthcare, leisure, and retail opportunities.
“The last trial in August was a brilliant success, which saw more than 100,000 journeys made by our older and disabled people before 9.30am,” commented Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
“We are now carrying out this second trial, at a busier time of year, to see whether we can safely remove the restriction permanently and help our older and disabled people to get to work, go shopping, and get to medical appointments.
“We want the Bee Network to be the best public transport system possible and this means it needs to support all of our residents and communities to make the journeys they need to make and use the bus more.”
Georgina Pellant -
22nd April 2022 
