Yahoo News The Mancunian Way: Tonight's the night
Hello
I know. We’ve been here before. But tonight could finally be the night Co-op Live opens its doors.
After a number of false starts, East Manchester's new £365 million venue is set to host its first full show with local heroes Elbow the headline act. Bosses insist the gig is going ahead after a safety inspection at Britain’s biggest indoor arena.
And the Bury band have told fans they are 'ready' and they will 'see you there. Last night workmen and staff in high-vis jackets could be seen carrying out final preparations at the venue next to the Etihad Stadium ahead of the grand opening.
Everyone involved will be hoping the launch is successful and that it brings to a close a tumultuous first chapter in the venue's history during which a string of shows in its opening season had to be moved or postponed.
We’ll be covering tonight’s on the main website, so you can follow it there. Doors for the show open at 6:30pm with the first act due on stage at 7:30pm.
The Black Keys are set to play tomorrow before Eric Clapton on Saturday and Barry Manilow on Sunday, which is the same day City play West Ham at the Etihad Stadium in the final Premier League game of the season.
‘I’m dying, but my insurance company won’t give me a penny’
Shaun Pinkney is dying. The 53-year-old, from Salford, has terminal cancer.
But despite paying life insurance premiums for 15 years he’s been told he can't cash out on his policy. That’s because of smallprint in the contract which says someone with a terminal illness can only make a claim if they have 18 months or more left on their plan.
Shaun, dad-of-four and grandad-of-six, has only two months left on his Aviva policy, but in a cruel Catch-22 situation, can’t renew because of his diagnosis.
“So, if I'd got terminal cancer six months earlier than when I was diagnosed, they would have paid out?," he told health reporter Helena Vesty. "It's absolutely ridiculous."
"The pay-out won't be worth lots, but it would have been something. I'm getting penalised for getting cancer too late. I could pass away next week. I want this sorted before I die.” You can read the full story, and what Aviva have to say, here…
Andy Cole’s life-changing second chance
He was a five-time Premier League champion and the goal-getter in one of England’s greatest-ever football teams. But when Andy Cole fell ill with a rare kidney condition aged just 43 he faced the toughest fight of his life.
“This illness knocked me off my feet,” he admitted back in 2018. “I found it really difficult to cope, after being as fit as I was. There is no hell like it."
The former England international contracted a devastating mystery on a trip to Vietnam in 2015. The illness was so catastrophic he was left needing a kidney transplant – and desperate for help.
Luckily he found a match for a transplant in his nephew Alexander. And now seven years after the life-changing procedure Cole is fronting a new campaign to encourage more people to consider living kidney donation.
“Transplant is a life changing experience for a lot of people. Organ donation transforms lives,” he said. “It is torture for you, torment for you as an individual in need.”
‘It’s part of our community’
Watching on as firefighters sprayed water on the smouldering remains of Clarendon Leisure Centre, one woman summed up the mood in this corner of Salford. "I feel like crying. It’s part of our community, it's been there for years,” she said.
It was confirmed yesterday that the leisure centre will have to be demolished, following a devastating fire which ripped through the building in the early hours of Friday. A large part of the building - believed to be the swimming pool area - was gutted by the blaze.
Police are treating the fire as arson and have launched an investigation. But now there are fears a vital part of the community could be lost forever.
Generations of families learned to swim there while its kids clubs were a lifeline for parents and their children during the school holidays. And the ageing leisure centre, off Liverpool Street, was in the process of being refurbished. The swimming pool reopened last month while the gym was in the process of being extended.
Sheryl Singleton, whose Towyn Avenue home backs on to the leisure centre, woke up to find the building ‘ablaze’ in the early hours.
“We've all grown up round here with the swimming baths, it's childhood memories,” she said. “It's the only thing the kids have got round here, there's nothing for them. I hope they rebuild it.”
Charting up
The Northern Quarter could soon be home to an 18-storey office block which will tower over a 230-year-old neighbour that helped shape British democracy. The building, on the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Lever Street, was built around 1791 and was well known as The Land O'Cakes Hotel pub for decades.
But before that it was the birthplace of the National Chartist Association, which campaigned for many features of elections we still have today - namely secret ballots, paid MPs, and equal constituency sizes.
Now, developers Soller Nine want to build an office block next to the old NCA base. Dubbed NXQ it would feature a ‘tech hub’ and ‘creative hub’, and requires the demolition of ‘derelict warehousing’ next door from the late 19th century, according to architects Howells.
If given planning permission, developers say the project will create 800 jobs and add £60 million to Manchester’s economy in the long-run. Ethan Davies has more here…
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Weather etc
Wednesday: Cloudy changing to light rain in the afternoon, 18C.
Roadworks: One lane closed westbound on A57 Regent Road in Salford to Oldfield Road until May 30.
Manchester headlines
Cleaning up the Gardens: Dozens of people suspected of keeping a notorious Manchester hotspot awash with illegal drugs have woken to the sound of police at their doors. Hundreds of officers were called up to search properties and arrest suspects believed to be dealing drugs in Piccadilly Gardens. More here
Knocked down: An elderly woman suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by a car in Lowton, Wigan. The 81-year-old was walking down the East Lancashire Road yesterday evening when the car turned right onto Church Lane and knocked her down. She was rushed to hospital from the scene. Read more
Fined: A company in Oldham has been fined £20,000 after an employee fell through a roof and suffered serious injuries. The 24-year-old, employed by Hightech Roofing N/W Limited, was repairing a roof on a building in Blackburn when the incident happened on August 3, 2022.
Worth a read
Did you know street names in Manchester can’t begin with ‘The’? Or that they can’t be named after a living person?
Nostalgia Lee Grimsditch has been looking at the strict criteria for naming streets - and the controversy caused during a huge drive in the mid-60s to rename almost 1,000 streets across the city.
