As the weather starts to improve, many bar owners in Manchester are looking to extend their outside seating into the road once again – but one is claiming that its applications have been both refused and ignored by the Council.
Whilst the likes of Common and The Bay Horse Tavern are unpacking their drop-leaf tables for another summer serving in the street, Alvarium – just around the corner on Dorsey Street – is feeling significantly left out without a confirmed road closure of its own.
This week, its owners have issued an impassioned plea to be granted more outside seating – explaining that “last summer this extension meant we survived, and we were able to protect our staff against redundancies, an important priority for us.”
The bar said it was ‘still struggling’ and that having extra space last year meant they could ‘absorb some of the economic shock’ from the fallout of the pandemic.
Turning their ire on Manchester City Council in a fervent social media post, owners claimed that they had already been ‘given the green light’ but that Council bosses had suddenly ‘revoked the grant […] with no grounds or reason’ and ignored further appeals.
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Image: Alvarium
The post continued: “The council approved Piccadilly Cycle Lane which pedestrianised Thomas St and Stevenson Square however, Edge St (which can be seen in the third photo) was not included in these plans, yet the bars and restaurants have still been granted access to the road.
“By comparison our road Dorsey St, a double yellow lined cul-de-sac, has been denied with no grounds or reason.”
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The bar also said that it had since had ‘no response from the Council or our local MP’, adding ‘our faith in being listened to is fading’.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Manchester City Council told The Manc that the only official correspondence MCC has had with the premises in question dates to March 16, 2022.
They explained that the reason the road closures have been granted in other areas, but not Dorsey Street, is due to the ending of emergency Covid legislation that ‘allowed the Council to expedite road closures and provide temporary licences for premises wanting to trade outside.’
Now, in order for a business to trade on the street/road, a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) or Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) must be in place.
Businesses are, at a cost, able to apply for a licence to trade on the street/road and this process (unlike the temporary scheme legislation now revoked by Parliament) also requires a full consultation and planning consent.
They added that, in regard to Edge Street and Thomas Street and Stevenson Square, businesses are able to continue trading as there is an existing TRO in place to facilitate the PicVic cycling route (the planning for which predated the pandemic).
Image: Alvarium
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: “During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic laws were brought in by the Government which allowed the Council to expedite road closures and provide temporary licences for premises wanting to trade outside.
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“This was vital in allowing the Council to expedite planning and licensing law in order to save countless businesses that would not have been able to trade due to Covid restrictions.
“However, the temporary powers granted to the Council were revoked by Parliament and can no longer be used more expeditiously support businesses who want to install outdoor seating that required a road closure. General applications for road closures and permanent outside seating licences would have to be directed to the Council’s Highways Department, as was the case before the pandemic.”
Alvarium’s owners, however, maintain that ‘the consequences could be detrimental’ if they are not granted a road closure this summer. Pressure continues to build as other Manchester hospitality businesses, such as Black Milk, are now joining the call for businesses to have more outdoor seating.
Black Milk owner Andy Young has this morning set up a petition to reintroduce the act that allows roads to be temporarily or partially closed to traffic for outdoor seating introduced in response to COVID in 2020 and 2021, so we expect we have not seen the last of this debate yet.
Feature image- Alvarium
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Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
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Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.
Georgina Pellant -
27th April 2022 
