‘It feels like it’s on the brink’: Manchester suburb where ‘homeless people with problems’ are moving in

Densely populated with students, Fallowfield is often described as ‘transient’ these days. But life in the south Manchester suburb wasn’t always this way.

Before the bars, takeways and clubs catering for students opened, the high street was lined with bakeries, greengrocers and a gift shop. “We’ve seen a lot of changes,” says Roz, a resident of more than 40 years. “It goes up and down.”

When Roz moved into her home off Victoria Road in 1975, it was in a ‘rotten state’. Like many properties in the area, it was a house in multiple occupation (HMO) – but back then, young professionals would live in these shared homes.

That all changed at the turn of the century when the number of landlords converting properties into student housing accelerated, she says. “It was just like dominoes,” says another long-term resident of Clifton Avenue who asks not to be named.

“People started selling up. One family home of five changed to 19 rooms.”

Earlier this year, a resident of Fallowfield Brow described his neighbourhood as a ‘party-club-fested, drunken, drugged up conurbation’ that is ‘fit for no human life or existence’. Objecting to a new off licence in the area, Nick Roberts, who lives in Landcross Road, told town hall bosses in January that 90 pc of the properties in the seven streets on his estate are populated by students.

Manchester council had a policy in place preventing more bars, takeaways and off licences from opening late at night in a bid to curb issues of noise and litter in the neighbourhood which residents complain of. But the policy has expired now, leading to a spate of businesses trying to take advantage of the situation.

The town hall’s own licensing chief said it feels like ‘open season’ in Fallowfield after one takeaway applied to extend its opening hours to 3am after similar requests were rejected. But because the policy lapsed, it could not be stopped this time.

One week earlier, a petrol station was granted an alcohol licence despite objections from local residents’ groups. But their main concern was not about the abundance of alcohol available to students, fuelling their ‘noisy’ parties.

They were concerned about alcohol becoming more readily available metres away from hotels which have been housing homeless people. Located directly opposite the Shell garage on Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield Lodge is being used as temporary accommodation alongside the Ram’s Lodge around the corner.

Attributing a rise in street drinking to the transient residents of these hotels, some people living in the area say they are now scared to leave their homes – even in broad daylight. One woman says she was groped by a drunken man while waiting to cross Wilmslow Road as she made her way to Sainsbury’s.

Police say anti-social behaviour in the area has fallen recently. But residents have spoken of people urinating and defecating in their gardens while others say street drinkers and drug takers make the neighbourhood ‘intimidating’.

Student parties still cause a nuisance keeping some residents up in the early hours of the morning and many blame them for making the streets ‘scruffy’. But several residents have reported a recent change in the local population.

They say the area is not as ‘studenty’ any more and the parties have died down. This week, the council reported that the student housing market in the south of the city – especially in Fallowfield and Withington – has shrunk in size.

It comes as a growing proportion of students – international ones in particular – have choose to live in the city centre. The local authority’s strategy is now for more student accommodation to be built near the city’s two university campuses.

Next week alone, planning applications for three schemes accommodating more than 1,700 students in and around the city centre are set to be approved. And the council is expecting more student housing of this sort to be built soon.

So what does this all mean for the future of Fallowfield? Locally, some people believe that as students move out, more people with ‘problems’ will move in.

Plans to permanently use the Ram’s Lodge to house homeless people are also set to be approved by councillors this week, while plans to extend Fallowfield Lodge have been submitted too. Residents’ groups say they are concerned that the ‘vulnerable’ people in these hotels do not receive enough support.

In those circumstances, they fear the anti-social behaviour – which affects everyone in the area – will only get worse. “They’re just putting more and more problems into an area without any support, without any plan and it’s just going to be a spiral of decline,” according to Coral Grainger who lives in Egerton Road.

“It feels like it’s just on a brink and it could go one way or another.”

‘Party central’

Piers Fortin has lived in Fallowfield for around a year now. And the Manchester Metropolitan University student loves it because all his friends live there too.

“Pretty much everyone you know will live here,” he says. “There’s lots of stuff built around students – there’s bars, a club and easy bus links to the city.”

Piers recognises ‘locals are not being catered to’ because of the student population. He wants to live in Withington next year, saying it’s ‘a lot nicer’.

Alana who lives in Royal Street describes Fallowfield as ‘very, very scruffy’ – and she says the students don’t help. But she doesn’t believe it’s all their fault.

“There’s rubbish everywhere,” she says. “When you walk in Egerton Road, you can’t walk for bins and rubbish.

“But it’s not the students they need to target because they’re transient.”

The council says it regularly works with local volunteers and waste contractor Biffa to undertake clean-up sessions and the local neighbourhood team works across the whole ward and in the student heartland areas, advising and supporting all residents around waste management and other issues. It urges residents to report any issues, which will be followed up ‘as soon as possible’.

Students are advised of ‘a broad set of expected behaviours’ through door knocking, leafleting and social media channels to manage and remove their waste with the council working closely with the universities and Manchester Student Homes (a university-run housing service) particularly around move out periods, the town hall says. A trial will begin this year to use digital push notifications aimed at young people in the areas worst impacted by litter and fly-tipping, pointing students to the Give it Don’t Bin it partnership website, which offers advice and guidance, the council adds.

But Roz says it is often landlords who do not look after their properties. One improvement she has noticed though is that the area is not as noisy any more.

“We’re not suffering the way we used to from here,” she says. “Occasionally, we do hear a bit of noise from Victoria Road. But it’s certainly not every night.”

Another resident of Clifton Avenue, who asks not to be named, echoes these comments, saying the area stopped being as ‘studenty’ in the last few years.

“I think there’s been a bit of a mental shift in the attitude, she said. “At one point it was party central, but I think it was a bit of a fad. It’s died down a lot.”

According to Manchester council, the student housing market in the south of the city has contracted as the universities have consolidated their campuses around Oxford Road. More students are now choosing to live in the city centre.

But many who are in their second or third year of study are living in privately rented properties. The local authority wants more of these students to live in purpose-built accommodation, freeing up much needed housing elsewhere.

However, on the high street in Fallowfield, this trend doesn’t seem to have had an impact yet. New bars are opening and takeaways are extending their hours.

‘Open season’

For years, local residents’ groups have been attending town hall hearings to object to late night licences, telling councillors of the impact an increase in the availability of alcohol and the number of takeaways opening later will have on their lives. But in recent months, their arguments have carried less weight.

That’s because the council’s cumulative impact policy which restricts late night licences, other than in ‘exceptional circumstances’, has now lapsed. And businesses have been instructing barristers to argue their case as they apply to extend their hours while the restrictive policy is temporarily not in place.

In January, a former kebab shop turned convenience store in Wilmslow Road successfully secured a licence to sell alcohol until midnight. Four months later, the same top licensing lawyer, Sarah Clover, made the case for a Shell garage which had previously surrendered its alcohol licence to sell booze once again.

Representatives from local residents’ groups spoke against both applications at the town hall, raising concerns about the proximity of the petrol station to homeless accommodation which is already associated with street drinking. But the garage got the licence, albeit with hours limited from 10am to 10pm.

The following week, when a Dixy Chicken takeaway in Wilmslow Road applied to extend its hours, the residents groups did not even turn up to the hearing. Speaking afterwards, Kattie Kincaid said the South East Fallowfield Residents Group which she represents feels ‘let down’ by the council, which ‘failed’ to review the policy that previously prevented these licences before it expired.

“This was avoidable,” she said. “All our considerable efforts over many years to try and prevent the district centre in old Fallowfield Village from getting any worse are being rolled back at pace and we are supposed to accept this, without question.

“Speaking personally, I feel very angry indeed. How can we have faith in our council when this type of thing happens?”

A council spokesperson said the town hall is finalising the new licensing policy for the city which will supersede the existing cumulative impact policy.

It was the council’s aim for this to be in place to coincide with the lapsing of the previous policy, the spokesperson said, but due to ‘complications’ it has taken longer than anticipated to come into effect.

They said: “A consultation is being prepared that will go out in the coming weeks, with a view the licensing policy will be in effect by the summer. In the interim, licensing applications will still go through a robust process of checks and balances to ensure that the council’s licensing aims are being achieved.”

Objecting to the application by Dixy Chicken, the council’s principal licensing officer Fraser Swift said there is a feeling that it’s ‘open season’ in Fallowfield. He said there had been a spate of new applications since the policy lapsed, including some from premises which have had licences refused recently.

However, the takeaway was granted the licence, allowing it to open until from 11am to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and until 2am throughout the rest of the week. But, as a condition of the licence two members of staff from the takeaway must carry out a litter pick of the area for 30 minutes every day.

It comes after concerns about litter generated from takeaways were raised. But businesses in the area say they are doing their bit to keep the area clean.

Brian, from the new Swankys bar, said: “We’ve only been open for seven weeks, but I know that all the businesses on our street are doing their bit and are cleaning and sweeping up. Also, all the bins are emptied every day by the council on our street, which is good. Overall, from what I see the area is clean.”

Abdul from the Atlantic Fish Bar added: “There is lots of rubbish, because of the students – I’m not saying its all of them who leave rubbish, but they are contributing to it. I’ve lived in Fallowfield for eight years and it is getting worse.”

But other residents say it is not just the students making a mess in the area.

‘Sense of lawlessness’

Speaking on behalf of the Fallowfield Community Guardians at a town hall hearing last month, Sue Hare said street drinkers often gather by the garage and the nearby bus shelters, making it ‘really intimidating to catch a bus’. Cans and bottles are scattered around, she added, with broken glass ‘everywhere’.

One elderly man in his eighties who lives nearby had street drinkers sitting on his wall, throwing cans into his garden and urinating in it, she told councillors. And local litter pickers feel ‘vulnerable’ because they find ‘all sorts of horrible things’ in the streets, including knives, broken glass and condoms, she added.

She said: “I brought a family up in Fallowfield. My kids now say ‘don’t walk down that road, mum, because there’s always someone off their head’. We feel unsafe walking in the streets in the daytime because of these groups of people drinking alcohol.” She added: “We are not wimps – we put up with a lot.”

Cammy Liu first lived in Didsbury after moving from Hong Kong with her family six years ago. The 61-year-old soon bought a property in Clifton Avenue.

In the time she’s lived in Fallowfield, she’s seen a lot of change – and most of it has been negative, she says. “We feel the issues are more and more serious given that many of the bars and pubs have been allowed to open for longer hours,” she said. “More bad guys are hanging around until late at night.”

She attributes some of the issues in the area to homeless people living here, saying that they aren’t ‘all bad’, but they often ‘hang around’ and ‘attract’ others. She avoids walking near the homeless accommodation after 8pm.

And she worries when her 31-year-old twin sons are out late. “I’m scared,” she said. “I’m scared about them being stopped by some bad guys in the street.”

Greater Manchester Police say that, in the first five month of 2023, the total number of anti-social behaviour incidents reported around the Rams Lodge and Fallowfield Lodge is 37 pc less compared to the same period last year. Public order related offences are also down by around 28 pc in those areas.

Neighbourhood inspector for Fallowfield Victoria Holdsworth said: “Both myself and the neighbourhood team work closely with partners from Manchester City Council, local councillors, and the universities regularly discuss issues raised and attend local events and meetings to discuss issues with residents and members of the public.

“The area does have a dedicated neighbourhood officer and PCSO who are regularly in the community on foot, bike and car. The student area also benefits from a dedicated student engagement team who work closely with the universities and students themselves.”

Earlier this year, the force revealed plans for an additional 264 neighbourhood police officers as part of an overhaul of neighbourhood policing. This means more officers are tackling violent crime, drugs, anti-social behaviour, burglary and vehicle crime – those that matter the most to communities, GMP says.

Priorities in Fallowfield include burglary, robbery, drug dealing, anti-social behaviour and disrupting organised crime, the force says. But one local resident is not convinced that the police care, claiming ‘there’s no police here’.

Another resident, Coral Grainger, says she suffered a burglary attempt earlier this year – and she claims the culprit was a local resident who is known to be a ‘prolific burglar’. “There’s an increasing sense of lawlessness,” she said.

“Residents and students are just fending for themselves and are abandoned. It’s a historic centre that’s in decline.”

The future of Fallowfield

“The area has gone up and down,” Roz reflects, “This is what happens.

“But I think the main problem at the moment is too many homeless people making the population transient. Homeless people with problems.”

The Ram’s Lodge, which is located behind Wilmslow Road, has been housing vulnerable homeless people since the pandemic, as part of the ‘Everyone In’ scheme..

On Thursday (June 1), a planning application to use the hotel for this purpose permanently will be determined. The plans say that the hotel, which has space for up to 30 single people will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But local residents’ groups have objected to the application, citing concerns about anti-social behaviour perceived to be associated with this premises. Councillors representing Withington ward – where the hotel is located – say they have met with the management team at the Ram’s Lodge to share these concerns, but said not all anti-social behaviour in the area originates from here.

They have backed the proposal which will be put to a vote by the planning committee. Another planning application for the nearby Fallowfield Lodge has also been submitted, this one seeking to create an additional 18 hotel rooms.

The hotel has been used as emergency accommodation since 2016. Rooms here are sourced on a ‘spot purchase’ basis by Manchester council alongside other local authorities and organisations which use it for this purpose too.

Hotels and B&Bs can be used to house families temporarily only in exceptional circumstances for fewer than six weeks. But recently, the number of families being housed in B&Bs has risen across Manchester, peaking at 227 in January.

Manchester council has now set a target of having no more than 10 families in B&Bs by the end of this year with none living there for longer than six weeks by June. It says there are currently around 81 families being housed in B&Bs.

While things are moving in the right direction, there is still a long way to go before the council achieves its long-term aim in tackling homelessness. In the interim, emergency accommodation such as the Fallowfield Lodge is needed.

In addition to the emergency homeless accommodation at the Fallowfield Lodge and the supported temporary accommodation at the Ram’s Lodge, there are also two hotels within the area which are currently being used by Serco to accommodate asylum seekers on behalf of the Home Office. These recent changes have created a perception among some local residents that the council is actively making the population of the area more transient.

But Coral believes the problem is that there is no plan for the area. “There’s a lack of understanding or leadership about what this area could and should be,” she said. “And now it feels increasingly like a lack of care from the council.”

“Their strategy is to put more people with problems in a problem area. There’s a lack of any management, there’s a lack of policy and there’s a lack of interest.

“If they don’t get hold of the area now, it’s going to be hard to bring it back.”

Local councillors in Fallowfield say they are proud of the area’s ‘vibrant’ and ‘diverse’ population, but believe community cohesion is ‘central to achieving positive change’. Some tension between long-term residents and the transient population is inevitable, they say, but bringing these two groups together through community garden projects and other initiatives has helped.

Fallowfield councillors have also been working on a number of initiatives to tackle serious youth violence and anti-social behaviour in the area. It follows a spate of several stabbings, including the death of Rhamero West in 2021.

Labour councillor Jade Doswell says she has personally supported Rhamero’s mother, Kelly Brown and has called for a review into the city’s approach to safeguarding so that the lessons are learnt from the tragic incident. The three councillors representing the ward have also met with the town hall’s head of licensing to request that the review of the former Cumulative Impact Policy around Wilmslow Road is commenced quickly, is more nuanced and clearly defined, and addresses the safety of women and girls in licenced premises.

The local Labour councillors say they understand that Fallowfield is not always as clean or quiet as everyone would like it to be, but they have been working ‘really hard’ over the last four years to put in long-term measures that would put a stop to these problems, rather than just ‘constantly firefighting’. They added: “Of course we understand that there is always more to do, and we are fully committed to working with residents, residents groups and all partners to ensure that Fallowfield is a safe and secure place to live.”

Labour councillor Lee-Ann Igbon, who is the executive member for vibrant neighbourhoods at Manchester council, said: “Fallowfield is a unique neighbourhood with a diverse population of long-term residents living alongside a large transient population, including students and young professionals attracted by everything the area has to offer – including proximity to the universities, city centre, shops, bars and restaurants.

“The challenge we take very seriously is to balance the needs of a range of different resident groups – and we understand that tensions can occur from time to time. The council has developed a comprehensive partnership approach responding to and addressing a range of issues in Fallowfield working with the police, our universities, student groups and local people.

“We are fully aware of the concerns that residents have, and we are listening. We will continue to work in and with the community, and we will always act where necessary to ensure Fallowfield remains a vibrant neighbourhood.”