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Woman arrested after four-year-old girl dies in Manchester house fire

An investigation is ongoing.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 3rd March 2025

An arrest has been made after a four-year-old girl tragically died in a house fire near Rusholme at the weekend.

Emergency services were called to a fire at a property on Gateshead Close at around 12.35pm on Sunday.

The fire was quickly extinguished and the girl brought out of the property.

Sadly she had suffered serious injuries in the incident and died in hospital a short time after the blaze.

Police have now confirmed that a woman, aged 44, has been arrested on suspicion of arson with the intent to endanger life.

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Officers say that the woman is known to the child and that there is no wider threat to the community.

A scene remains in place around Gateshead Close as specialist officers continue to investigate the full circumstances.

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Detective Chief Inspector Charlotte Whalley, from GMP’s Major Incident Team, said: “This awful incident has seen the tragic death of a young girl, and I would like to send my condolences to her friends and family. Numerous emergency services attended the scene and all did their utmost best to save her.

“A woman has been arrested and I can confirm that she is known to the child. There is no wider threat to the community and no one else is currently being sought in connection with the investigation.

“These tragic incidents will of course naturally cause concern, but I want to reassure the public that we are fully investigating all circumstances of the fire, and will leave no stone unturned as we carry out this work.

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“As this continues, I would ask anyone with any information about today’s events to please get in touch with officers. You can do this via 101, or on our Live Chat service at gmp.police.uk, quoting log 1314 of 02/03/25. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

Ben Levy, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Area Manager, said: “Today (Sunday, 2 March), crews from Gorton, Moss Side, Salford, and Withington Fire Stations attended a fire at a house on Gateshead Close, Manchester.

“I want to pass on the condolences of everyone at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service to the family and friends of the young girl who tragically lost her life following this incident. Our thoughts are with them during this sad and difficult time.

“We will work closely with Greater Manchester Police to support their investigation into this tragic incident.”

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Featured image: Google Maps

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Council prioritises support for those ‘most in need’ in Manchester’s budget for the year

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Manchester skyline

Support for those ‘most in need’ has been prioritised in Manchester’s budget for the year.

Manchester City Council outlined its spending plans to deliver services, make lives better, and ultimately ‘improve the city’ throughout this year and into the next, with the allocation of the £894 million revenue budget highlighting the main priorities, as well as the demands on services that councils are seeing nationwide.

Councils in Greater Manchester remain under ‘significant financial pressure’ as they grapple with the difficult legacy of 14 years of national Government cuts to budgets, with Manchester itself being one of the areas hardest hit.

However, there has been improved funding for 2025/26 under the new Government, and Manchester has actually received one of the biggest increases in the country.

According to the Council, the 2025/26 budget prioritises ‘supporting those most in need’ with a significant spend on children and adults social services, helping residents out of poverty, and helping with the cost of living crisis.

Other plans forming part of this year’s local budget includes reducing homelessness and building new homes that are ‘genuinely affordable’.

Protecting Manchester’s libraries and leisure centres, investing in the borough’s 148 parks and green spaces, and restoring local neighbourhoods and high streets are also included.

To round it off, the Council is allocating an extra £5 million to tackle fly tipping, clean up the streets, and make sure the city is ‘clean, green, and tidy’. 

“Our top priority is making sure that everything we do works towards making our city, and the lives of our residents, better,” commented Cllr Bev Craig, who is the leader of Manchester City Council, as the budget was announced last week.

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“We’re pleased to be able to set a budget which continues to work hard for the people of Manchester -not just delivering the essential functions which they expect but also investing in making lives better and improving the city.”

Featured Image – Manchester City Council

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One of the 2025 Oscar winners was a favourite at a recent film festival in Manchester

Danny Jones Danny Jones A Real Pain wins Oscars UK Jewish Film Festival Manchester

It’s not often we get to say that Greater Manchester can lay any sort of claim to Oscars fame, but once in a while it happens and in this case, we’re only a few degrees of separation away from the latest Academy Award-winning film thanks to a recent film festival.

Being most recently hosted in Manchester once again, the 2024 edition of the UK Jewish Film Festival saw a number of shorts, student films and indie projects associated with the religion spotlighted – one of which just won not one but two bits of bronze.

Picking up not only the award for this year’s award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for the film itself but with Succession favourite and Home Alone child star, Kieran Culkin’s role winning him ‘Best Supporting Actor’, the much-celebrated A Real Pain has now won an Oscar.

But the part of all this that we’re especially happy about is that one of the first times it was seen in the UK happened right here in Manchester city centre late last year.

This year’s ‘Best Original Screenplay’ award winner at the Oscars, just a few months after screening in Manchester. Have you seen it yet?

The now Oscar-winning picture, which just so happens to be the second original feature film from Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network, Zombieland, Justice League), has been delighting audiences ever since its debut at Sundance in January 2024 and went on to premiere at several international film festivals.

However, the second time it was screened here in Britain prior to its official UK release nearly a full 12 months later (8 Jan 2025) at the UK Jewish Film Festival, was in 0161, returning for another consecutive year across multiple Greater Manchester venues.

Based at the main hub in the HOME theatre, cinema, arts and social space on First Street, A Real Pain was part of the event’s 28th annual programme of movie and TV programme.

Without giving away too much about the plot itself, the synopsis of the film reads as follows: “Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother, but their old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.”

Shown to us Mancs for the first time at Cineworld Didsbury on Thursday, 17 November last year, you won’t be surprised to hear it was one of the most popular picks of this festival too.

A Real Pain has been largely described as a buddy comedy and a road trip movie by lots of critics but there’s also tonnes of drama and serious subject matter that it gets stuck into.

Touching not only the obvious themes of Judaism and Zionism but also family, the Holocaust specifically and theology in general, the film has gone down as a deeply important piece of cinema for a whole community and plenty of people beyond it.

Admittedly, the Greater Manchester connection to the film might only be a slight one but given its new Oscars fame and how well-reviewed the film has been ever since we saw it at the UK Jewish Film (UJFF) Festival, we’re absolutely jumping on the bandwagon and we’re glad to keep supporting events like this.

Make sure you check out the UJFF the next time it comes to our neck of the woods. Applications to enter a film into the 2025 festival are now open.

Side note: it also led to arguably one of the best acceptance speeches in years:

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Featured Images — Searchlight Pictures/HOME Manchester

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