Neighbourhood restaurant Chapati Cafe has been left with £600 worth of damage at its Chorlton restaurant after it was broken into overnight.
The Indian restaurant’s owner says that the burglar took off with nothing at all, but left chaos in his wake.
The criminal smashed a full-length window at around 2am this morning (4 February) and ransacked the site.
They took a box of till roll as far as the exit before realising it was worthless and leaving it behind.
Chapati Cafe posted on Twitter this morning: “Great start to February, the month of recovery! Our annual visitor is back …. Sat waiting for the window boarder.
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“Come down for a thali over the weekend … we need you, these windows cost a fortune!!”
Credit: Chapati Cafe
Dan Hall, who co-founded the business with his wife Priti Chauhan-Hall, said that they had a similar incident last year, but that burglar raided the onions in their kitchen instead.
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Dan says he was woken in the early hours of this morning by an automated call from the Chapati Cafe security system, and saw a figure lurking on the security cameras.
Speaking to The Manc, he said: “It’s probably all in all about £600-worth of damage. That’s £600 you have to make, you’re talking a week or two weeks of turnover.
“It feels like we get broken in to once a year. It’s odd.
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Great start to February, the month of recovery ! Our annual visitor is back …. Sat waiting for the window boarder .
“Everything calms down and you stop worrying as much, and all of a sudden you get a call off the alarm system and someone’s in there.
“The burglar took a box of till roll and then he’s left it on the way out when he’s obviously realised it’s not of value.
“It’s 95% card these days so there’s no cash on site! There’s only pennies, there’s nothing to steal, it was pointless.
“It’s the damage that’s the problem, and the upheaval and the mess.
“When we got burled last year the onions had all spilled out, it’s like he’d gone through the big bag of onions.
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Chapati Cafe co-founders Dan Hall and Priti Chauhan-Hall at their MediaCityUK site. Credit: Jack Kirwin -JK Photography
“I just thought ‘what’s he doing?! Trying to nick some veg?’
“It’s the timing of it – the Omicron thing in December, trade went right down, and then January’s always quiet. February comes and you’re all sort of geared up like let’s going again.
“And then four days into February you get your windows smashed, it just knocks the wind out of you.”
Chapati Cafe opened in Chorlton in 2014 and has since expanded with a new site in MediaCityUK.
It’s famed for its hugely popular rice and three format, serving a selection of homemade curries in thalis.
Dan says he’s already had an outpouring of support from the community, including his MediaCityUK neighbours Grindsmith, who appeared with a hot coffee early this morning.
He said: “The two police officers went into a lot of detail, they were great. It’s making us feel a bit more valued.
“It did feel like they were giving more attention but I doubt they’ll catch him – he had cap on, head down, gloves on, he knew what he was doing.
“Little things do cheer you up, and we’ve had really nice messages.
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“Our customers are ace, I know they’ll support us, and we really do appreciate it.”
You can visit Chapati Cafe at Wilbraham Road in Chorlton.
Featured image: Chapati Cafe
News
Parklife pumps more than £155,000 back into Greater Manchester community projects
Danny Jones
Parklife is once again proving why it’s such an important event for Greater Manchester, not just in terms of music and culture, but through the money it pumps back into the community through grassroots projects.
The annual music festival at Heaton Park raises significant funds for local initiatives with each edition via the official Parklife Community Fund.
Partnered with the Manchester, Bury, and Rochdale councils, the finances generated through those who attend not only Parklife but also other concerts held at the outdoor venue, such as the recent Oasis shows, help local groups that make a positive, tangible difference in their neighbourhoods.
This year alone, the total includes £55,000 raised from guest list donations by festival attendees, as well as a further £100k generated from other events held in Heaton Park, making 2025 one of, if not the biggest, years for donations to date.
Distributed by the City Council and the local authorities in Bury and Rochdale throughout the respective boroughs, the aim is not only to give back but to enhance local life, through everything from important youth programmes to community wellbeing and improvement schemes.
Launched back in 2017, the festival fund is approaching nearly half a million pounds raised on behalf of local causes, strengthening its connection with the nearby communities surrounding its host site.
The region’s vast and stunning green space is a huge tourist attraction in itself, meaning literal grassroots causes like the woodland management group are vital to maintaining that beauty and status.
Other projects include an astronomy group, as well as fitness drives like ‘RockFit’ (seen above), which now meets at Heaton Park regularly to promote exercise for both physical and mental health.
It’s also worth noting that the fund covers surrounding areas like Higher Blackley and Crumpsall; Sedgley, Holyrood, St Mary’s and even South Middleton.
You can see more examples of the charitable community work in action down below.
Credit: Supplied
Sam Kandel, founder of Parklife Festival, said of the fund: “Parklife is proud to call Heaton Park home, and it’s really important to us that the festival has a lasting, positive impact on the local community.
“The Community Fund is our way of saying thank you to residents and supporting the brilliant grassroots projects that make Manchester, Bury, and Rochdale such special places to live.”
Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon (Exec Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods) added: “Parklife brings people from Manchester and beyond to our wonderful Heaton Park, and it is right that the communities living close by benefit from the event through reinvestment in local initiatives that will leave a legacy for all.
“The Parklife community fund means that local communities choose what’s important to them and they have the opportunity to bid for funds to invest in projects that enhance local amenities, strengthen community connections and wellbeing for the benefit of everyone.”
Those looking to benefit from the fund can apply online now and you can find out more information by contacting the relevant councils’ neighbourhood pages.
Work finally begins on Greater Manchester’s new ‘innovation hub’ in Atom Valley creating 20,000 jobs
Emily Sergeant
It’s official… work has finally begun on the first major development in Atom Valley.
If you’re not familiar with Atom Valley, this new project is set to be a unique innovation ‘cluster’ – plans of which were approved by local leaders all the way back in summer 2022 – with the potential to create up to 20,000 new jobs in Greater Manchester once it’s complete.
Greater Manchester wants Atom Valley to become a ‘springboard’ for new and emerging companies and researchers, giving them the support and the opportunities they need to trial and commercialise their innovations right here in our region.
The new development which ground has now been broken on is a Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) – which is set to become a thriving hub of innovation.
Today is a big day for GM.
We break ground on a new research centre at Atom Valley – our emerging world-class cluster in advanced materials and manufacturing.
Here, start-ups and emerging companies will be able to pioneer new technologies and scale up their ambitions, all while creating jobs and driving growth across the region in the process.
Located next to the Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale, it will offer 30,000 sq ft of new laboratory space, workshops, and design studios, as well as a lecture theatre, meeting rooms, office space, and flexible workspace for start-ups.
With the ‘right’ support, local leaders say the SMMC will also be a vital link between Atom Valley and the Oxford Road Corridor, ultimately forging a pathway for new companies and projects to expand from the city centre out into the wider city region.
Work has finally begun on Greater Manchester’s new ‘innovation hub’ in Atom Valley / Credit: DLA Architecture
Mayor Andy Burnham says this is the ‘most ambitious development’ in Atom Valley so far
“It will help unleash the untapped potential of the world-leading research taking place across our city region, bridging that crucial gap from invention to bringing those new innovations to the market,” he explained. “And it will create a new hi-tech corridor from the out to the north of Greater Manchester, creating jobs and new opportunities for start-ups to scale up their ambitions.
“This is integrated, well-connected development in action, and a clear sign of our mission to spread the benefits of growth right across our city region.”
Daisy Jackson -
4th February 2022 
