An inquiry into the Moss Side and Hulme Community Development Trust has this week found the charity wrongly paid its chairman £56,000.
According to the Charity Commission, accounts for the community organisation – based in the Windrush Millennium Centre in the inner-city suburb of Moss Side – claimed it helped some 400 people at a cost of £60,000 per year, but its ITC Learning Centre had been closed since 2015 and trustees held no records of charitable work.
It was thus unable to provide any evidence of such activities.
The charity told the inquiry it trained and empowered unemployed people, and assisted those affected by the Windrush Scandal, with chairman Hartley Hanley – one of two trustees, the other being Mike Bisson – also stating the trust had not received any public funds.
But the commission found that payments totalling £56,000 had been made to Mr Hanley without authority for acting as the charity’s CEO.
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Accounts show he was paid £17,500 in 2013, £18,500 in 2014, and £20,000 in 2015.
The commission report concluded: “The charity’s governing document explicitly prohibits trustee remuneration for the supply of work or goods to the charity,”
The commission also told of how the organisation’s annual report for 2015 said its ITC Learning Centre had “assisted over 400 local people at a cost in excess of £60,000 per annum”, but Mr Bisson told the commission during an interview in 2018 that “the centre may have been closed since 2015”.
Mr Hanley confirmed in 2019 that “the centre had not been used since 2015 or 2016”.
The report found that the men “were not able to evidence the £60,000 expenditure for the centre,” and in addition, “the charity held no records to evidence its charitable activities”.
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A failure to submit accounts to the commission is categorised as “a criminal offence”.
The commission confirmed to the BBC that it has declined to refer the matter to the police however, stating: “We did not make a referral to the police, as on this occasion we took action to remedy the governance shortcomings at the charity and hold the trustees to account on the delivery of these actions [but] we are continuing to monitor the charity.”
Mr Hanley and Mr Bisson have both declined to publicly comment further on the findings of the enquiry.
The full report can be found via the gov.uk website here.
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Manchester band Westside Cowboy release ‘thrilling’ debut album that critics are calling one of the year’s best
Emily Sergeant
One of the UK’s best rising bands have released their debut album today to glowing reviews from critics and fans alike.
Jimmy Bradbury, Reuben Haycocks, Aoife Anson O’Connell, and Paddy Murphy – better known together as Westside Cowboy – formed back in 2023 when they were students at the Royal Northern College of Music, so while they may not all be from Manchester, they definitely have the spirit of our city at the heart of everything they do.
After playing in different bands across the city throughout their student years, the four-piece joined forces to create Westside Cowboy – an indie rock collective credited with self-coining the genre of ‘Britainicana’.
Put simply, Britainicana is a cultural concept that mixes the hazy, mythic feel of American country and folk, with the sound of raw British punk, indie rock, and small-town life.
Westside Cowboy have released their debut album, It Goes On / Credit: Clementine Schniedermann (Press Shots – Supplied)
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll be pleased to know that Westside Cowboy have released their debut album, It Goes On, to the world today (21 August).
And the reception from critics, arguably, couldn’t be better.
Prior to the release of their debut album, the band had released two EPs, including So Much Country ‘Till We Get There in January earlier this year, and had started to make a name for themselves with their popular debut single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ in 2024.
They went onto make even further waves when they supported equally-rising American rock band Geese on their UK and Irish tour back in March – with many fans calling it one of the best support and main act combinations in some time.
Three singles from their debut album were shared with the world ahead of its release – ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ came first, followed by ‘Pin Up Boys’ and ‘Dobro’.
So, it’s fair to say the anticipation for album was high… and if the reviews are anything to go by (which we think they are), it looks like the band has very much delivered what they set out to achieve.
Westside Cowboy’s debut album It Goes On is now available to stream, or you can purchase a physical copy in a range of formats from their website here.
Take a listen👇
Featured Image – Press Shot (Supplied)
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UK set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn
Emily Sergeant
The UK is being told to brace for a series of storms this autumn when the ‘unprecedented’ El Niño weather event arrives.
It’s already been a summer of extremes for the country, with multiple heatwaves over the past couple of months, but now it appears that autumn and winter are set to have some extremes of their own, as the Met Office is warning that this upcoming El Niño could be one of the most significant in recent memory.
El Niño is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the long-term average, which therefore impacts global rainfall patterns and average temperatures.
The natural warming of sea temperatures is forecast to reach more than 3°C in the coming months, according to the Met Office, making this year’s weather event have the potential to be ‘the largest since the 19th century’.
The UK is set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn / Credit: Johannes Plenio (via Unsplash)
El Niño will create a heightened risk of drought in the tropics, southern Africa, and north eastern Australia, but over in north western Europe – including the UK – it means we are likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions.
The UK, and of course Greater Manchester, is absolutely no stranger to a storm around this time of year, but forecasters say this could be an entirely different beast.
“We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event,” warned Professor Adam Scaife, who is the Head of Long Range Forecasting at the Met Office.
“I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts.”
Professor Scaife concluded: “A typical El Nino leads to an equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature rise of between one to 2°C, with 2°C being a really big event. This implies that, if the forecast is accurate, and other forecast systems show similar extreme values, then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Niño and its worldwide climate influences.’
Forecasters and officials, however, have warned that it could take months of sustained rainfall before rivers, reservoirs, and groundwaters are ‘completely replenished’ – which is when a drought can officially be declared as over.
It also warned drought conditions could persist into the new year as, despite El Niño, as current forecasts do not suggest this autumn will have the amount of rainfall needed to drive recovery.
The Manc -
4th December 2020 
