Our exclusive story on the future of Salford Reds Stadium in Barton has now hit the national press, after the Reds put an official statement up on their website confirming our information.

So remember when you turn to the back pages that you read it here first!!!

Following news this week that Salford Council has the highest average overall sickness rate amongst Greater Manchester Councils, council tax payers will be pleased to know that this morning the Council will really be addressing this problem – or maybe not…

Following news this week that Salford Council has the highest average overall sickness rate amongst Greater Manchester Councils, council tax payers will be pleased to know that this morning the Council will really be addressing this problem – or maybe not…

This Saturday, Salford goes to Edinburgh as the Reds play Harlequins at Murrayfield.  Here, Reds fan, Gaz Shaw, sums up the mood at The Willows...

Today Salford City Council’s Cabinet will discuss the future of Central Salford, amidst a £167million wipeout of private sector housing schemes around the Media City site in Central Salford. 

The chances of Salford Reds rugby club being in the new £35million, 20,000 seater stadium by the start of the 2010 season now look virtually impossible, as the club admits that at the very earliest it's going to be the `back end' of 2010 – if they're lucky…

As Media City begins to take shape in Salford, residents are pointing out that, while all the big fancy towers face Manchester and the Quays, all the car parks and site entrances are backing onto Salford’s community…

Salford Council Leader, John Merry, today told Regeneration and Renewal magazine the reason why the Council blocked Salford Star's application for devolved funding from the city's Community Committees…

Garforth Town 2 Salford City 5

Incredible…unbelievable…fantastic…fabulous Salford City have brought to life the impossible dream. Sir Alex Ferguson…Mark Hughes…doff your caps today to Salford City for the surely the greatest escape in footy history. Salford City…15 points adrift just a few months ago…without a home win 'til March…have done it.  SALFORD'S STAYING UP!!!

They made a film about Salford City!

Here, council tenant Neil Hill gives his view on Salford City Council's conduct in the run up to the privatisation poll…
 

"By the time you receive this I will be dead, having committed suicide.  I hope you feel very proud of yourselves…I will haunt you for the rest of your miserable stinking rotten life…"

The system finally got to Neil Hill, lifelong community fighter, and Salford Star contributor and distributor. 

"No dust settles on me matey!!!"

The final fight over the future of Buile Hill Mansion could be settled over the next few weeks as the Lottery considers Salford Council's bid for the future of the park...

When Salford City Reds owner, John Wilkinson, put in for planning permission to turn the previously public owned Buile Hill Park Mansion into a 4-star luxury hotel, local residents Tony and Ann Bannister, along with many others, turned up to object.  Here they recount their shocking experiences…

THE PLIGHT OF THE SALFORD BUTTERFLY

A sad story of greed, profit, big business, environmental disaster, useless authorities and the exodus of threatened birds and butterflies…

`Salford’s mosslands are about to be commercialised, awesome style...with Peel Holdings’ plans for a racecourse, Forest Park, the Port Salford rail and freight terminal, Salford City Reds stadium, more roads and more railways.  Even Salford Council is getting the jitters….'

It wasn't the sun by any chance? There's been similar spottings in Irlam a few nights before and all over Geater Manchester recently. There was even an `encounter' in Eccles last year.

Rachel has logged the alien visitors on the UK UFO Sightings website and asked for any other witnesses.  If anyone else saw the `bright orange light' please register it at

And now Salford employs a Think Efficiency Manager…

And now Salford employs a Think Efficiency Manager…

Star Date: 21st April 10pm

Salford City lost 4-1 away to top of the table Skelmersdale United tonight but live to fight one more massive end of season day this Saturday, as closest rivals, Rossendale United got stuffed 4-1 at home to Newcastle Blue Star. There's now one point in it down at the bottom and the simple fact is that Salford City have to win at Garforth on Saturday, whilst Rossendale must draw or get stuffed again at home to Mossley. 

The excitement mounts and Salford Star will be there at Garforth (wherever the hell that is) on Saturday to bring you news of the final thrilling act of The Great Escape... 

Turn on, tune in and, hopefully, Rossendale United will drop out of the Unibond Division One North!

A full page article in The Independent newspaper yesterday urged Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, to help out the Salford Star.

The feature, written by Ian Herbert, called the Star "a journalistic tour de force – a publication which has cut through the uncritical gloss which is so often put on the regeneration industry that has made a fortune out of deprived, post-industrial cities like Salford".

It concluded…"The Star seems like a classic example of those publications which, as the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham suggested two weeks ago, would benefit from becoming part of a different business model funded by media trusts or mutuals…"

So, Andy, we're waiting to hear from you.  We wrote to our own MP and Communities Minister, Hazel Blears almost six months ago and got no response, so we're not holding our breath…

Read the full article here…

A tragic picture of Salford is about to emerge when a new `Community Strategy' is launched in May. Salford Star got a sneak glimpse of the draft document.  And the facts about the city are well shocking…

• Almost a third of our kids live in poverty
• Life expectancy for our men is over 3 years less than the average English bloke.
• Life expectancy for our ladies is almost 3 years less than the average English woman
• 40% of our community don't have the equivalent of 5 GCSEs
• In the most deprived neighbourhoods of our city the unemployment rate is 50%

Despite millions and millions of pounds of public money being poured into the city to help sort out these problems (and loads more) over the last decade, Salford remains in the top 5% most deprived areas in the country. And all this before the recession.

Meanwhile, Salford's authorities admit for the first time that projects like The Lowry and Media City have excluded Salford's community…

So what are they going to do about it? Er, they don't know…but come back in 2024 and they'll have it sorted!

"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today."
                         Alice Through The Looking Glass

Click here to read the full story…

THE SALFORD CITY LION ROARS…

Salford City FC 2 Harrogate RA 0

One point! Just one point stands between Salford City and safety as The Great Escape…The Impossible Dream…LIVES ON!!!

People might associate our city with sprawling tower blocks but East Salford has more than a touch of Turkey and the exotic East. The great domes of Salford have been highlighted in some brilliant new work by artist Constance Fearn currently on show at Swinton Library…

Salford Star features in a strange new book about The Pogues' second album, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, which interweaves a fictional account of the band being shipwrecked on a voyage to Africa in 1816 with true life stories behind each of the tracks.

CAN THE SALFORD CITY LION ROAR THREE MORE TIMES?

There's a few more squeaks left in the bums of Salford City FC as the season draws to its nerve shredding, scarf sucking, programme twisting, eye wrenching, psyche screaming, angst splintering conclusion…

At Salford’s incredible Working Class Movement Library there’s a treasure trove of books, pamphlets, badges and banners relating to the constant struggle of the working class to better itself against all the odds.

Now, thanks to a Heritage Lottery grant the Library is opening up its top collection to more people than ever before, starting with a free open weekend on 18th and 19th April 1pm-5pm, with formal tours of the Library at 2pm and 4pm both days…

Get healthy for spring by joining a Health Walk around Kersal Dale and the local area, starting Tues 21st April 11am from the Willow Tree Centre on Littleton Rd. 
For further details on this and other healthy activities click here…

Broughton Rec on Camp Street has loads of new classes starting and a contemporary buzz around the place so check it out.  For full details click here.

We take you behind the scenes and onto the Wythenshawe set of Shameless for an exclusive peak…

MEET MIMI MAGUIRE

She might live in Salford Quays but Tina Malone, who plays big bad Mimi, comes originally from a council estate not too far in spirit from Shameless.  And she remembers women who were well worse than the Maguire matriarch…

Star Date: 7th April 2009

SALFORD CITY 3 ROSSENDALE UNITED 1

Manchester United…Porto…Arsenal…Villareal…Who cares? They can all go kiss their wallets. The squeaky bum drama, the eat-yer-scarf tension tonight was at Moor Lane, where Salford City stomped Rossendale United in the big six pointer to bring the impossible dream one step closer…

Sorry, we couldn't resist passing this on from Bristol's Class War Youth Death Brigade...

Sinead Moynihan was a normal Salford girl who got spotted by a talent scout in a local café and became a top model.  Then she was spotted by a tv exec and won the starring part in Drop Dead Gorgeous…playing a normal girl who gets spotted by a talent scout and becomes a top model… 

When the BBC brought its fab Springwatch event to town, we went out with petitions urging folk to `Do One Thing For Nature' and save the BBC birdies …CBeebies mega star, PC Plum was only too keen to sign up…