SALFORD STAR TOLD YOU SO…

Way, way back in the last printed issue of Salford Star, Mary Burns exposed Salford Council's potty plan for primary school closures, and how it had ignored warnings from its own officers and advisors on the overcrowding and chaos it would cause.

And so it came to pass…

FIREWORKS FOR GUY FAWKES PLOT HOME

Lighting The Legend

Ordsall Hall
Friday 4th November from 6:15pm free

The evening before Bonfire Night sees a spectacular happening at Ordsall Hall where, legend has it, Guy Fawkes conceived his plot to blow up Parliament. There's a fab lantern parade, street theatre depicting 700 years of the Hall plus, of course, a firework display.

ART FOR WOOD STREET

Manchester and Salford Illustrated
Creative Lynx
52 Princess St, Manchester
Until 10th November

What does Manc-land and Salford mean to you? This was the question posed to local illustrators, and their answer back images - including portrayals of Tony Wilson, John Cooper Clarke and Lowry - have gone on sale at £25 per print to raise money for the Wood Street Mission. Sarah Ward sifts through the art…

Clitheroe 1 Salford City 1

MORNING STUNNER BOOSTS SALFORD CITY

A fabulous Adam Morning goal in the 83rd minute allowed Salford City to claim a deserved point at Clitheroe, despite having a makeshift goalie for the entire second half, and despite Clitheroe being awarded a non-penalty at the end of the first half.

QUEEN'S SPEECH TO BE CANCELLED?

Pensioners and supporters last night staged a protest outside the BBC studios at MediaCityUK against Question Time not allowing pensioners' leaders a platform on one of the programme's panels.

Question Time producers have apparently stated that the pensioners' reps "wouldn't be able to cope with the lights and the stress of a live broadcast". Yesterday was Question Time presenter David Dimbleby's 73rd birthday. And the Queen is soon due give her Christmas Speech on BBC.

SALFORD PENSIONERS TO PICKET QUESTION TIME AT MEDIACITYUK

BBC North
MediaCityUK
Friday 28th October 5pm

Salford's pensioners and supporters are to picket the BBC at MediaCityUK on Friday to protest against age discrimination on Question Time. The protest is being called by Salford Against The Cuts, and the National Pensioners Convention which has being blocked from appearing on the panel because its reps `won't be able to cope with the lights and the stress of a live broadcast'!!!

SALFORD SITCOM STARS BEZ AND ALABAMA 3

It's got music by Alabama 3, who did the tunes for the Sopranos; it's got Bez doing a cameo, and it's being shown at next week's Cofilmic Festival as one of the top five sitcom pilots, heading up a competition to find the best new comedy talent.

Order 69, by Salford based Carl Whitely and part shot in his Pendleton flat, is not only being tipped to get on tv, it's already got the guest stars lined up.

SALFORD STARS

Salford Stars Morris Troupe, based in Lower Broughton, is currently piling up trophies and becoming the best young crew in the county.

The Salford Star met the Salford Stars and discovered that this isn't trad morris dancing as we know it…

FA Trophy
Burscough 0 Salford City 1

SUPER SALFORD CITY MARCH ON IN THE CUP!

With three of Salford City's usual back four missing from the team, the Ammies still managed to defeat higher league opposition in the non-league FA Cup. Wembley here we come!!!

LANCASTER HOUSE STRUGGLES ON…

Despite having its funding cut by Salford Council, Lancaster House, is continuing to stay open to support homeless people in the city albeit with a lesser service and less staff.

Meanwhile, while cutting finance for supportive accommodation like Lancaster House, we can reveal that, in May, Salford Council spent over £5000 on a hotel bill for homeless people.

BURNT AND IGNORED – THE PLIGHT OF SALFORD'S HOMELESS

Sleeping rough means no benefits, little help and being at the mercy of whoever is around. For one Salford man this meant getting burned alive in his sleeping bag, just around the corner from the posh shops of Manchester city centre.

Sarah Ward gets a first hand account of life on the streets…

SALFORD COUNCIL SPENDING PART TWO: MAY 2011

LOWRY HOTEL…PEEL HOLDINGS…SALFORD REDS…
…ALMOST £100,000 ON RECRUITMENT…OVER £20,000 ON PLANTS AND FLOWERS…£24,000 ON WASHING DUSTBINS!

Can Salford Council's spending get any worse? Er, yep! During one month last May, the Council spent almost £100,000 in fees for recruitment agency, Meridian Business Support – at a time when staff were being axed through £40million worth of cuts…

Salford Council also spent £11,719 at the 5 star Lowry Hotel, spent another £24,000 on washing dustbins, gave Salford Reds Rugby team £6000 in sponsorship and handed thousands of pounds to megabucks Peel Holdings. Again.

SALFORD COUNCIL SPENDING: PART ONE APRIL 2011

ORCHESTRA…HOTEL…CAR PARK…CRICKET AND CONSULTANTS!

The month after Salford City Council had announced over £40million of cuts for services to the city's most vulnerable people, it spent over £14,000 from its Community, Health and Social Care budget on `subsistence' at the posh De Vere Hotels chain. The figure is revealed in Salford Council figures for April's expenditure over £500. And other spending doesn't make pretty reading either…

SALFORD – A FIRST CLASS UNIVERSITY…
£1.85million a year on travel, hotels, accommodation and subsistence!

After a two year battle, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that while the University of Salford was axing staff to save money during the year 2007-8, it was spending £1.85million a year on travel, hotels, accommodation and subsistence. That works out at £5,000 a day.

Meanwhile in that year, the publicly funded University also spent almost £1,500 on 'room floral/plant arrangements' for the offices of the Vice Chancellor and Registrar.

BLACK LION STARTS CINEMA REVOLUTION IN SALFORD 

Just Do It
Tues 18th October 7-9pm free
Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal
26th-29th October daily 1pm and 7pm £5

The only cinema to open in Salford during the last ten billion years throws open its doors for two fantastic new independent films during the next few weeks, as The Black Lion cinema, upstairs in the new Chapel Street pub puts itself on the movie map.

JADE DANCES WITH DIVERSITY

Ordsall's Jade Crowther travelled to the Pineapple Dance Studios in London recently to take part in Street Dance for Change, learning dance moves alongside members of the superstar street dance group Diversity.

Now 15 year old Jade's routine can be viewed on YouTube, with every hit helping the charity Railway Children.

RADICAL WALKS AND TALKS

Red Flag History Walks
Invisible History Talks

Beginning this Wednesday 19th October with a Riots, Rebellion and Revolution walk in Manchester exploring sites connected with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and a talk on Malcolm X at the Working Class Movement Library, there's a whole month of radical heritage coming our way.  

ARE THERE ANY POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES OUT THERE?

North West Unity Conference – Building The Alternatives
Sponsored by the Morning Star
Saturday October 22nd 10am-4pm
Transport House, Salford Quays

Salford plays host to a conference with some top speakers next weekend, who will be exploring what is going on in ConDem Coalition UK and beyond at the moment. They will be talking about all sorts of stuff, from The Hidden Agenda of Pensions and Privatisation, to The Tax Evasion Industry, to The Rise of China.

80TH ANNIVERSARY OF BEXLEY SQUARE

On the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Bexley Square, people are determined to keep alive the memory of one of Salford's darkest days. Firstly, the Salford anti-Tory march a few weeks ago stopped at the Square to lay flowers, then a commemorative plaque was unveiled…now we have the political pamphlet drawing out the similarities between the cuts, the battles and the reactions at the time of Bexley Square and in modern day Salford.

Salford City 2 Curzon Ashton 3

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Salford City fans are still scratching their heads this morning wondering how Curzon Ashton managed to rob three points at Moor Lane last night in the Ammies' first Friday night league fixture. Salford City completely dominated this match, yet…

SALFORD UNDER THE FLOODLIGHTS

As a one off experiment, tonight Salford City FC will play its first Friday night league fixture under the floodlights at Moor Lane, against unbeaten, top of the league Curzon Ashton. The only point the Ashton team has dropped all season was at home, against Salford City. Let battle commence!

FA Trophy
Clitheroe 1 Salford City 2 (aet)

10 MAN SALFORD CITY DUMP CLITHEROE OUT OF NON LEAGUE FA CUP!

Salford City, down to ten men, hung on in extra time to march onto the next round of the non-league FA Cup. Rhodri Giggs secured the magnificent victory with the winner in the first half of extra time.

COLIN `TINY' BROWN – A PROPER SALFORD STAR

Today, hundreds of people turned out in Charlestown to pay tribute to Colin `Tiny' Brown who lived on the Whit Lane Estate.

Tiny, with his wife Mary, graced the cover of the first print issue of Salford Star and was a total inspiration.

COUNTRYSIDE PROPERTIES MOVE INTO HIGHER BROUGHTON WITH CONTROVERSY…

Countryside Properties unveiled its plans for the Top Streets area of Higher Broughton yesterday with a community consultation – except the company failed to invite what little community remains in the Top Streets, until someone found out.

SAVE SALFORD PUBLIC HEARING

Britannia Hotel
Portland Street, Manchester
11th-12th October

One of the first big battles to Save Salford begins today with a public hearing taking place into the stupid boundary changes that will see Salford disappear from the political map.

Over the two day hearing Salford is wheeling out its big guns like Council Leader John Merry and current MPs Hazel Blears and Barbara Keeley. But the highlight for us will be at 4:15pm today when Victoria Connett founder of the Save Salford campaign takes to the stage…

SALFORD UNIVERSITY'S £33.6MILLION `OPERATING EXPENSES'
…OVER £76,000 A WEEK ON CONSULTANTS

It's taken two years but the Information Commissioner has now forced the University of Salford to make public its expenses. And in just one year, 2007-8, it spent around £33.6million in `operating expenses' alone.

Included in this figure is almost £4million on consultants - which is more than was spent on bursaries for poorer students.

GRAHAM NASH VOWS TO READ SALFORD STAR

5 Decades with a Camera
Richard Goodall Gallery
Until Nov 2011

Graham Nash - The Hollies, Crosby Stills Nash and Young etc – wasn't just in Salford last week to pick up a doctorate from the University of Salford. He also played a gig in Manc-land and launched an exhibition of his photographs.

Suzi Hoffman caught up with the Ordsall legend and, apparently, he vowed to start reading the Salford Star...  

SALFORD JOINS MARCH AGAINST INCINERATOR

At the beginning of the year, Salford people joined a huge march around the Urmston area against Peel Holdings' plans to build an incinerator in Barton, just over the border from our city.

Salford has a major interest in this as protesters claim the emissions from the plant will blow over into Barton, Ordsall, the Quays and MediaCityUK. Last weekend there was another march through Urmston as the campaign grows as strong as ever…

BLACK LION GETS STONED

No Turn Unstoned
Black Lion
Chapel Street
14th October from 8pm free

The No Turn Unstoned team take to the newly re-opened Black Lion pub in Chapel Street this Friday with its usual array of adult humour, music and whatever else appears on the open mic.

WEA 10 WEEK JOURNALISM COURSE

Creative Media Centre
Chapel Street
Starts Tuesday 11th October 12:45-2:45pm

The Workers Education Association is launching a new ten week journalism course at the Creative Media Centre starting this Tuesday at 12:45pm. It's free to anyone who is on benefits…

13 TONS OF AID NEEDED FROM ECCLES TO ROMANIA

In just over a week's time, a 20ft container will leave Eccles to help disadvantaged children in Romania. It's going to orphanages, care homes and camp sites.

LIM, a registered charity based in Eccles, is looking for help from Salford people to fill the container – everything from food, to clothes, to fridges.

FA Trophy
Salford City 2 Clitheroe 2

LAST GASP AMMIES FORCE DRAW

Salford City, with half the team gone over the last week, grabbed a dramatic last minute equaliser to force a replay at Clitheroe this Tuesday, as the FA Trophy dream lives on…

SALFORD RIOT RESEACH LOOKS TO FIND CAUSES

The Guardian newspaper, together with the London School of Economics, have launched a study into why the August riots happened and are looking for anyone who was around Salford Precinct to speak to them in total confidentiality and anonymity.

SALFORD COUNCIL TO ISSUE LANGWORTHY DEMOLITION NOTICES FOR PFI SCHEME WHICH IS YET TO GET GOVERNMENT GO AHEAD…

"I'll stay here until the bulldozers come to the door…" Marjorie, Athole Street resident.

This week Salford Council has confirmed the issue of demolition notices for the Athole Street area of Langworthy – before the Government has actually confirmed the PFI scheme for `Creating A New Pendleton'. And before a developer has even been announced.

The area where Christopher Eccleston was born is already known as the Langworthy Prairies – does it need more demolition?

A Salford Star Exclusive

TORY `GUNMAN' UNMASKED

"By pretending to be 'shooting protesters off the streets' this Tory politician has shown that deep down the Tories remain the nasty party" Mark Krantz, Manchester Right to Work

Here is the face of the Conservative Party Conference delegate who pretended to shoot protestors during Sunday's peaceful March For The Alternative, when thousands of public sector workers, trade unionists and families took to the streets without any arrests.

Our story yesterday drew anger from many organisations, particularly as Theresa May was speaking at the Conservative Party Conference about the "prevalence of knives and guns in our towns and cities" which "wrecks communities"

TORY DELEGATE `SHOOTS' NURSES, TEACHERS, TRADE UNIONISTS AND FAMILIES…

Our photo, sent in by a Salford Star supporter, shows the attitude of a delegate to the Conservative Party Conference during Sunday's march by teachers, nurses, public sector workers, trade unionists and families, as he pretends to shoot them in full view of accompanying police officers.

While people were handed sentences of up to four years in prison for `inciting riots' on facebook during the recent unrest, this pinstriped suited Conservative idiot and his smiling mate will get away with it, we're sure. Unless, of course, David Cameron, the police and the courts prove themselves not to be hypocrites…

SALFORD PUTS ON HORROR SHOW

Grimm Up North 3
October 6-9th
AMC Cinema, Manchester

As the Conservative Party Conference comes to Manchester, a fitting tribute is taking place as the Grimm Up North 3 horror film festival comes to town.

Starring David Cameron, George Osborne…sorry…Yvette Fielding of tv's Most Haunted, Martin Kemp of Spandau and EastEnders, and Robin Hardy, the original Wicker Man director, this third annual Grimm Up North horror spectacular is not to be missed. And it's being put on by a Salford company…

SALFORD AMBULANCE STAFF PLAY CELEBS AT THE WILLOWS THIS SUNDAY

Celebrity Football Match and Family Fun Day
Sunday 9th October 12pm/kick off 3pm
The Willows, Weaste Road M5 5FQ
£5 adults £2 children £12 family

This Sunday at The Willows there's a massive family fun day followed by a footy match with Ambulance Staff taking on a pack of celebrities, including football legends and stars from soaps, sports and tv.

The match is to raise money for four year old Lleyton Coombes who has a rare terminal illness and needs to get to the States for treatment.

SALFORD HITS OUT AT TORY PARTY CONFERENCE

Hundreds of Salfordians marched from The Crescent today to join over 40,000 protestors taking to the streets of Manchester town centre in protest at Tory party cuts and attacks on public services.

Farsley 6 Salford City 0

AMMIES RECORD DEFEAT TO VILLAGE TEAM