Salford Central is set to close for nearly five months at the start of 2023 as it’s set to undergo an £7.3 million refurbishment project.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has confirmed that the busy Salford commuter railway station just on the edge of Manchester city centre will close on 2 January 2023 in order to carry out what is being described as a “significant piece of work”, and it isn’t scheduled to open to the public again until late May.
The refurbishment project will see the heights of platforms one and two at the station – which have previously been branded as “dangerous” for those with mobility issues by Mayor Andy Burnham – raised up, and also see the canopies and coping stones replaced, the MEN reports.
New tactile platform paving and new passenger information equipment will also be installed.
Local councillors have said the upcoming closure is “going to cause a lot of anguish” for rail passengers, but TfGM has assured it will be putting measures in place to minimise disruption as much as possible, and has confirmed that trains will still continue to run through the station during the closure period to maintain a link to Manchester Victoria and beyond, but it will just not stop at Salford Central.
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TfGM has stressed that bus replacement services will be introduced, and Network Rail – which is leading the refurbishment works – has confirmed it will be meeting with with transport bosses and rail operators, including Northern, to discuss the plans further.
Salford Central is set to close for nearly five months at the start of 2023 / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Simon Elliott – Head of Rail Programme at TfGM – said the station is to close so that a number of “essential works” can be carried out.
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“Salford Central station will have long-awaited station improvements early in the new year.
“Trains will still run through the station not stopping, maintaining service links to and through Manchester Victoria. There will be a number of Sunday possessions that will see service changes across the route in January to March 2023 to facilitate construction works.
“The works will include the replacement of the canopies and coping stones, installation of new platform tactile paving, ducting and drainage, and new passenger information equipment.
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“TfGM are due to meet with Northern to discuss disruption mitigations.”
The busy commuter station is set to undergo a £7.3 million refurbishment project / Credit: Paul Ashton Architects
Ahead of the upcoming closure, Mr Elliott confirmed that “a quite significant communications campaign” would be introduced in advance to inform passengers of the engineering works and how long they will take to complete.
Three men charged with murder after teenager is fatally stabbed in Withington
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has confirmed that three men have been charged with murder after a teenager was stabbed to death in Withington last month.
The 17-year-old victim – who has been named as Kyle Hackland – was stabbed at around 11:30am on Southlea Road in Withington on Tuesday 22 November, and sadly passed away from his injuries shortly after he was taken to hospital.
GMP said at the time that it did not believe the incident was “a random attack”.
Shortly after making that announcement, the force confirmed that on Thursday 24 November, a teenager handed himself in to North Manchester Police Station, with a second teenager then handing himself in to Cheadle Heath Police Station later on the same day, and both being arrested shortly after.
On top of that, a third teenager was arrested at an address in Wythenshawe on suspicion of assault, possession of an offensive weapon, and affray.
After confirming that three arrests had been made in connection with the devastating incident, GMP said its Major Incident Team were conducting an “extensive and thorough investigation” to establish circumstances and find out who is responsible.
Now, the force has confirmed that on Monday, three men have been charged in connection with this incident.
They have been named as Yusef Sesay (24/11/2004) of Denton Road in Audenshaw, Lewis Ludford (05/12/2004) of no fixed abode, and a 16-year-old male – who cannot be named for legal reasons.
They have all been remanded in custody and appeared before Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court yesterday.
Featured Image – GMP
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Health Secretary insists there’s ‘no shortage’ of antibiotics amid Strep A outbreak
Daisy Jackson
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has addressed claims that there is a ‘shortage’ of antibiotics amid the ongoing outbreak of bacterial infection Strep A.
Barclay appeared on Sky News this morning, where he told Kay Burley that there was a ‘good supply’ of antibiotics.
It comes after pharmacy director Zeshan Rehmani claimed that ‘there’s no drugs’ when the schools minister Nick Gibb proposed giving out antibiotics to children in schools.
Rehmani said: “Today, we haven’t been able to get any penicillin in stock at all.”
But Barclay has now refuted those claims and says he’s been assured that the country has a ‘good supply’ of Penicillin.
He added that stock may need to be moved around if there are surges in demand in certain areas.
'Are we worried about the supply of antibiotics or not?' – #KayBurley
Antibiotics can be prescribed to treat infections linked to Strep A, including tonsillitis, pharyngitis, scarlet fever, impetigo and cellulitis, which ‘rarely become serious’.
Nine children have now died from an illness linked to the infection.
The rise in infections is thought to be linked to that fact that children mixed less during the Covid pandemic and therefore their systems aren’t immune to a number of different infections.
Barclay said today: “I checked with the team last night – we have an established team in the department that does this on a permanent basis – and they reassured me we have good supply.
Strep A
“The medical suppliers are required to notify us if they’ve got shortages.
“Now, sometimes, GPs can have particular surges if they’ve got a lot of demand in an area, and that’s quite routine, we can move the stock around our depots.
“As of last night, when we checked (with suppliers), they said they could reassure us that they’ve got good stock and were moving that around to meet demand.”
Emily Sergeant -
18th October 2022 
