This is when the Corn Exchange’s restaurants will finally reopen
Three Corn Exchange sites will be welcoming back customers from Saturday - including stylish bar and kitchen, Banyan, Berlin-inspired Doner Haus and family-run Italian restaurant Salvi’s.
Manchester’s Corn Exchange has announced the dates of when each of its restaurants and bars will be reopening now that the government has given hospitality the green light to trade.
Indoor table service is permitted in England from July 4.
Three Corn Exchange sites will be welcoming back customers from Saturday – including stylish bar and kitchen, Banyan, Berlin-inspired Doner Haus and family-run Italian restaurant Salvi’s.
Indian street food diner Mowgli will reopen on July 6, whilst laidback dining spot Cosy Club has confirmed a July 8 return.
The Corn Exchange’s remaining resident brands, which include Escape Hunt, Gino’s, Pho, Pizza Express, Roomzzz, Tampopo, Vapiano, Wahaca and Zizzi, will be back in action from mid-July onwards.
Social distancing measures and a one-way system have been implemented across the Corn Exchange to ensure “visitors can dine, relax and socialise in safety” – with each brand introducing prior booking and reduced guest capacity to meet government guidelines.
Doner Haus and Gino’s are also offering takeaway and delivery from the 2 and 15 July respectively.
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Liam Mooney, General Manager at Corn Exchange Manchester, said: “We’re excited to safely once again welcome visitors to our mouth-watering mix of brands, which will begin to reopen from this weekend.
“The teams onsite have worked hard to introduce measures to keep colleagues and guests alike safe while at work or play and we’re all looking forward to being a key destination for those visiting Manchester city centre.
He continued: “Opening hours and booking arrangements will vary between brands, so check online before arriving to make sure you can attend.
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“We’ll be closely monitoring Public Health England’s advice and will be reviewing the guidance regularly to ensure the site is as safe as possible.”
For more details on booking and visiting any of the onsite brands and for further information on the safety measures in place, please visit the Corn Exchange website.
The Manc is helping local businesses and venues get back on their feet after lockdown with our #BuzzingToBeBack campaign – offering as much support and exposure for Manchester hospitality as possible. Read more about what we’re doing for the industry here.
News
Royal Mail fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets
Emily Sergeant
Ofcom has fined Royal Mail a whopping £21 million for failing to meet its delivery targets in the last financial year.
Each year, it’s the watchdog’s job to look at and measure Royal Mail’s delivery performance against nationwide annual delivery targets, and for the 2024/25 season, the company was required to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days.
If Royal Mail misses its annual targets, Ofcom will first consider evidence of any ‘exceptional circumstances’ beyond the company’s control, and whether it would have achieved its targets had those events not occurred.
However, even after accounting for extreme weather events, Royal Mail was still found to have fallen short of its targets… and this time, they’ve been fined their highest sum so far.
We have fined Royal Mail £21m for missing its 2024/25 delivery targets, without justification.
The company must now urgently publish, and deliver, a credible improvement plan.
This is the third time in a row that Ofcom has found the company to be in breach of its regulatory obligations, after it was first fined a substantial £5.6m in November 2023, and then a further £10.5m in December 2024.
Royal Mail only delivered 77% of First Class mail and 92.5% of Second Class mail on time between April 2024 and March 2025.
Ofcom says it has therefore decided that the company breached its obligations by failing to provide ‘an acceptable level of service’ without justification, and took ‘insufficient and ineffective’ steps to try and prevent this failure.
“Hiding behind the pandemic as a driving factor in failures at Royal Mail does not cut it.”
Royal Mail has been fined £21m by Ofcom failing to meet its delivery targets / Credit: Royal Mail
The watchdog says this is likely to have impacted millions of customers who did not get the service they paid for.
“Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp,” explained Ian Strawhorne, who is the Director of Enforcement at Ofcom.
“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better.
“Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency, and that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.
“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon. If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”
Featured Image – Royal Mail
News
Thousands of elderly and disabled people to get free 24-hour bus travel across Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people in Greater Manchester are set to benefit from round-the-clock bus travel for free.
Currently, as part on an ongoing pilot scheme, people with a Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)-issued concessionary travel pass have free unlimited travel on Bee Network buses between 9.30am and midnight during the week, and all day on weekends and public holidays.
The rule was lifted in August on a trial basis for a month, meaning older and disabled residents in Greater Manchester had access to unlimited free bus travel any time between the allocated hours.
During the August trial, more than 100,000 journeys were made by older and disabled people – with up to 6,000 people a day making use of the pilot.
But now, after proving to be a huge success, the pilot is being extended even further, so that 400,000 eligible residents will now get free bus travel 24-hours a day, seven days a week, starting from 1 November.
If you travel with a TfGM-issued concessionary travel pass, from 1 November you’ll be able to use it on #BeeNetwork buses before 9.30am as part of a second month-long trial.
As well as free early-morning bus travel, during the trial starting in November, eligible residents will be able to board the Bee Network’s night buses for free too.
TfGM says allowing concessionary pass holders to travel at any time will ‘better connect’ them to healthcare, leisure, and retail opportunities.
“The last trial in August was a brilliant success, which saw more than 100,000 journeys made by our older and disabled people before 9.30am,” commented Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
“We are now carrying out this second trial, at a busier time of year, to see whether we can safely remove the restriction permanently and help our older and disabled people to get to work, go shopping, and get to medical appointments.
“We want the Bee Network to be the best public transport system possible and this means it needs to support all of our residents and communities to make the journeys they need to make and use the bus more.”
The Manc -
30th June 2020 
