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Council tax could be increased to help keep Greater Manchester Police ‘one of the best’ in the UK

"I know that times are tough for our residents, but investment through the precept is vital."

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 8th January 2025

Council tax could be increased to help keep Greater Manchester Police ‘one of the best police forces in the country’.

Residents across Greater Manchester are being urged to have their say on proposals to increase the police precept that forms part of their council tax bill. 

In case you weren’t familiar, three quarters of police funding comes from a central Government grant, but the remaining quarter comes from Greater Manchester Combined Authority‘s (GMCA) police precept, all of which helps enable Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to build on a range of improvements delivered over the last few years.  

Funding helps GMP to further improve the speed of answering 999 and 101 calls, reduce and prevent neighbourhood crimes and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), improve road and transport safety across Manchester city centre, and bring more sex offenders to justice, among many other things.

According to GMCA, these are some of the things that people in the region said were “important to them” following “extensive engagement and consultation” with communities.

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The proposed increase to the residents’ council tax bills would be £14 a year for a ‘Band D’ property (£1.17 a month), which equates to £10.89 per year (91 pence a month) for an average ‘Band B’ property – with the majority of properties in Greater Manchester falling within Bands A and B. 

Addressing the potential increase, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said: “We set out a number of commitments last year on what Greater Manchester Police would deliver with the precept, and they delivered on every one of them.

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Council tax could be increased to help keep Greater Manchester Police ‘one of the best’ in the UK / Credit: gov.uk

GMP are now answering 999 calls in record time, attending incidents sooner and investing in neighbourhood policing and crime prevention teams [and] as a result, we’ve seen crime reduce across the board, with the most marked improvement in neighbourhood crime which has reduced by 17% in the past year.”

He continued: “I know that times are tough for our residents, but investment through the precept is vital to maintain this improvement.

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“Your money really does make a difference.”

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The Greater Manchester public can respond to the police precept consultation online at www.gmconsult.org by 17 January 2025. 

Featured Image – GMP

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Manchester named one of the UK’s most congested cities with the ‘worst traffic’

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Manchester has got itself a new title… but this isn’t one worth shouting about.

You may remember that recently, Manchester and the neighbouring boroughs have found themselves on some pretty coveted UK-wide lists, most-notably with the city being ranked one of the UK’s most ‘most desired’ places to live and one of the top cities in the world to visit, so we’ve definitely got a lot to be proud of.

But it’s swings and roundabouts, as with all those impressive titles comes a less-than-impressive one, as the city has also been named one of the top 10 most congested cities with the worst traffic in the UK.

According to a new study conducted by the RAC, using data from INRIX, it was found that Manchester ranked number four on the list, as motorists lost a total of 61 hours stuck in traffic over the course of 2024 – which was estimated to cost them around £570 extra.

Manchester has been named one of the UK’s most congested cities / Credit: Manchester City Council (via Facebook)

Manchester wasn’t the only northern city on the list either, as Leeds and Sheffield also feature in the top 10, alongside the surprising addition of the lively Greater Manchester town of Wigan.

Yes, that’s right – it may not technically be a city, but for some reason, Wigan has also found itself featured on the list of UK’s most congested cities, as the study found that motorists there wasted an average of 57 hours stuck in traffic in 2024, and sadly had to part with an extra £532 because of it.

The UK’s most congested cities

  1. London
  2. Bristol
  3. Leeds
  4. Manchester
  5. Bath
  6. Birmingham
  7. Wigan
  8. Chelmsford
  9. Sheffield

When it comes to the top spot on the list, that of course goes to London.

London’s drivers lost 101 hours sitting in congestion in 2024, which was a 2% increase in delays from the previous 12 months, and this means that the capital also accounts for approximately 50% of all UK traffic delay.

Looking nationally as a whole, the data also revealed that the country lost approximately £7.7 billion in 2024, which is £200 million more than in 2023.

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The average UK driver lost around 62 hours due to traffic congestion last year, according to the study, which is up only one hour from the previous 12-month period, and this works out to £581 per driver per year.

Featured Image – Nabeel Syed (via Unsplash)

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Manchester woman now cancer free after groundbreaking UK-first transplant

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A young woman from Manchester who was told she only had a short time to live is now cancer free after a UK-first transplant.

Bianca Perea, a 32-year-old trainee lawyer who lives in Wigan, was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer – which is the most advanced kind – back in November 2021 when she was just 29, after only feeling a bit constipated and bloated, but otherwise having no other major symptoms.

After she was referred to her local hospital to have emergency bloods and a stool sample taken, followed by a colonoscopy and a biopsy, these investigations sadly revealed that she had bowel cancer, which had spread to all eight segments of her liver.

According to Cancer Research, only one in 10 people with advanced bowel cancer will survive for five years or more after their diagnosis.

But after becoming a patient at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist cancer centre in Manchester, Bianca is now miraculously cancer free thanks to becoming the first person in the UK to have a liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer, along with other previous treatments included targeted therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery.

Bianca was referred to The Christie’s local treatment centre in Wigan in early December 2021 where she had 37 rounds of a targeted drug called panitumumab, and chemotherapy over two and a half years.

According to The Christie, she had an “excellent response” to the treatment, with the tumour shrinking enough so that she could have an operation to remove the part of the bowel where it was.

A Manchester woman is now cancer free after a groundbreaking UK-first transplant / Credit: The Christie NHS

However scans showed she still had tumours in her liver which couldn’t be operated on, and so she was then referred to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as she was found to be a suitable candidate for a transplant.

Before being added to the transplant list, Bianca had to be doing well on treatment for two years, and she hit this milestone in December 2023.

She was subsequently added to the list in February 2024, and had her operation this past summer.

Despite all the odds, the surgery was successful, meaning she is now cancer free and the teams at Leeds and The Christie are “hopeful” that the cancer won’t return too.

“Within four weeks of going under the knife, I was able to drive and walk the family dogs, it was really quite incredible,” Bianca said.

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“To go from being told I’d only have a short time to live to now being cancer free is the greatest gift. I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m going to grab it with both hands. I am so grateful to the family who agreed to donate their loved one’s liver.”

Featured Image – The Christie NHS

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