East tells the story of east Manchester’s ongoing regeneration. It's about places being transformed and projects that make a difference. But most of all, East reports on local people's contribution to the UK's most ambitious regeneration project.
Giving local people the opportunity to work in radio broadcasting is what ALL FM is good at. Len Grant trudges through last week’s show and ice to visit their Mill Street Venture Centre studios and meet one of their most successful new talents.
Ahmed invites listeners to take another spin in his African Taxi
Ahmed Koroma is quiet and unassuming – more John Peel than Chris Evans – as we sit in the corner of the production office. How, I wondered, did he first get involved with the community radio station?
It was two years ago that I answered an advert in The Advertiser inviting applications for a radio production course at MANCAT [now The Manchester College]. I applied and, well, I got accepted. The course included technical skills like mixing the decks and compiling your programme but it was really about how to communicate effectively. Generally, in everyday life, it improves your communication. Before I would never have been able to talk in front of a crowd, but now I can.
After the course Ahmed was part of the outside broadcast team covering the New Islington Festival in 2008. (I was there too, and remember photographing him doing his vox pop interviews with the party-goers). Shortly afterwards he developed his own show – African Taxi – and has been broadcasting every week since.
Ahmed: "Sometimes you like more like a counsellor than a taxi driver."
I am actually a taxi driver here in Manchester and I am from Sierra Leone in Africa, so it made sense to put it all together. The show is just like a real taxi ride: it’s open to everyone and as we are going round I play you some music and chat to make you feel welcome. I bring Africa to Manchester and I take Manchester to Africa.
In fact, Ahmed’s show goes further than Africa. The internet allows ALL FM’s output to be heard worldwide and this taxi driver has a regular followers in Australia and the US.
I do more than two hours research for each show and, on air, I interview many musicians and managers from Sierra Leone. Although I play music from different African countries, most is from my country and that, I know, makes the people back home very happy. Until recently Sierra Leone had suffered civil war for many years and still the people there are very traumatised, so hearing their celebrities on the radio is a positive experience.
Ahmed left his home country 16 years ago but now, since the civil was has ended, returns each year and has plans for the future.
There is an african proverb that says, ‘a toad likes water but not when the water is boiling’. Well, the water was really boiling when I was in Sierra Leone so I had to jump to a safe place and I found myself here. But now, with my business partners, I have set up a recording studio back home and one day I hope to start a radio station there too. Maybe I’ll call it ALL FM in honour of the station that has given me a great start.
As well as radio presenter and real life taxi driver, Ahmed is a the social secretary for the Sierra Leone community in Manchester and has set up a football team – open to all nationalities – which is about to reach the top of their league.
African taxi can be heard on ALL FM 96.9 every Wednesday at 12 noon.
As the Rolls-Royce site on Pottery Lane faces the demolition gang, Len Grant nips in to chat with the one of the last employees about the site’s historic past.
Last Man Standing: David Hibbert was one of the last Rolls-Royce employees to leave Crossley Works
When David Hibbert first joined Crossley Premier Engines in 1968 he was expecting to working as a fitter or an engineer. His career path changed after he returned from a stint at the local college. “As apprentices, we’d all done 40 weeks next door at Openshaw Technical College [now the Manchester College] before reporting back to the factory to be assigned our jobs. Some of the lads were taken to the shop floor but I was sent to the drawing office and started work as a junior draughtsman. There was no explanation, I was just told to get on with it.”
These were turbulent times for the engine manufacturers who – as Crossley Brothers – had built a new factory at Pottery Lane in 1882 after outgrowing their Manchester city centre premises. At the turn of the century business was booming. Francis and William Crossley at first made gas-fuelled engines, and then diesel and petrol engines. The potential for motor car engines was not lost on the two brothers – indeed Henry Ford visited Openshaw to see how they did it – and a new factory was established in Gorton in 1906 from which another branch of company history unfolded under Crossley Motors.
Industrial engines, for railways and shipping, continued to be designed and manufactured at Pottery Lane. In the early 1960s the company took out the licence to build a French engine called the Pielstick and, although they were selling well, the company went into liquidation and was bought out. Almost as soon as David had picked up his pencil and slide rule, the company became part of the Amalgamated Power Engineering Group and the sign on the side of the factory changed again to APE-Crossley Ltd.
In later years Rolls-Royce at Crossley Works became a spares and serice centre
“The shipbuilding industry was shrinking at that time and although we still supplied some engines to the Ministry of Defence – our engines still power HMS Ocean – we switched to producing engines for industrial power generation mainly in developing countries like Sudan, Fiji and Bermuda.”
Rolls-Royce took over the business in 1988 and continued Pielstick production for another eight years. “Understandably Rolls-Royce were more interested in producing their own world-beating engine rather than someone else’s under licence,” recalls David. “At their Bedford base they designed the Allen 5000 and tested it here for 1,000 hours. All was well until it went into the field and then problems occurred. By the time design changes were made the project had to be scrapped because it had been tarnished with a bad reputation.
“Over the last decade or so, Crossley Works has become a spares and service centre for the Pielstick product,” continues David. “We’ve had numerous redundancies over the last 25 years and it’s been sad to see the business slowly shrinking. We stopped operations all together in February and since then what’s left of the business has been transferred to Rolls-Royce in Scotland.”
At the end of 2009, David and a few colleagues were packing up, ready to leave Crossley Works – the last employees after 127 years – and make way for demolition workers preparing the site for future redevelopment.
Below is slideshow of historical and contemporary images of Crossley Works. It’s automatic: no need to click.
The East Manchester Credit Union had humble beginnings, originally run by volunteers serving a small community. Len Grant talks to its first paid worker, Christine Moore, and discovers how it has grown to serve 5,000 members across the city with a staff of 20.
Christine: "There's constant juggling, but I get a great deal of satisfaction from this job."
Len: Tell me something about the early days.
Christine: It began in 1991 as the Beswick and Openshaw Credit Union. Friends and family would join together in a share-based saving scheme which meant you could take out a loan only if you had built up savings. The scheme was run by volunteers and only open for say, an hour a week, at the church hall.
By 2000, when I became the first paid staff member, there were less than 100 members, most of whom knew each other, and only a few thousand pounds on loan.
Len: It seemed like a good idea, so why so few members?
Christine: Yes, it was a good idea and our chair, Tim Presswood, recognised that credit unions needed to be more professional if they were to attract new members. He won funding which paid for my position and allowed us to open a shop on Beswick Precinct where we had a higher profile. The name changed then to the East Manchester Credit Union. You have to remember at that time, 79% of residents were on some kind of benefit, doorstep lending was rife, and there were no banks or even ATMs.
Len: So raising the profile must have helped?
Christine: Yes, it did. But our initial growth was also helped by the Eastserve computer project. New Deal for Communities had 4,000 subsidised computers on offer at £200 each. They guaranteed a loan scheme where we could provide instant loans to residents so they could buy one of the computers and get online. Before then, our members could only take out a loan if they had saved first. It was expected that only a quarter of the residents would need finance, but in reality 75% needed to borrow the £200. That was quite a steep learning curve for us.
Len: And now, do you still insist members save before they can borrow?
Christine: It’s changed completely now. We do offer immediate loans because we’re ‘competing’ against doorstep moneylenders. But we encourage new members to save and manage their money more efficiently. People find it empowering to have savings and sometimes it’s for the very first time. The advantage with the Credit Union is that there is just one loan and one – smaller – repayment rather than dozens of different ones. Managing your cash is more difficult on benefits: there’s no scope to increase your income by earning a bit more here and there.
Len: So if the Credit Union a soft touch?
Christine: When people get into problems, and providing they tell us what’s going on, then we are likely to be more sympathetic than other lenders but no, we’re not a soft touch. We have to distinguish between the ‘can’t pays’ and the ‘won’t pays’ and we follow strict credit control procedures for those who won’t repay what they’ve borrowed.
Len: And now?
Christine: We still have a branch in Beswick, but we’ve taken over smaller unions around the city who were at risk of folding and we are now the Manchester Credit Union. Our principles are still the same, but we now have more opportunities to help those on low incomes mange their finances.
Bang in the middle of Openshaw, the New Roundhouse is hard to miss. Len Grant meets Maria Gardiner of Manchester Settlement to find out what goes on inside and asks why this very angular building is so-called.
Len: So, tell me about the name?
Maria: The Manchester Settlement is part of the national Settlement Movement which began in the late 1800s when university cities, like Manchester, sent out their professors to help in the poorer districts. It those days, before the NHS, it was a case of distributing medicines and helping the sick and infirm. IN those days Manchester Settlement was based on Every Street, Ancoats in a disused circular chapel, known as the Round House, so we’ve kept that connection with our past.
The original Round House on Every Street in Ancoats
Len: And what happens now in the New Roundhouse?
Maria: We run education programmes for young people under 16 who, for any number of reasons, aren’t able to fulfil their full potential at mainstream secondary schools. They may be facing challenging circumstances at home or have other issues which mean that the local high school isn’t the best place for them to learn effectively. We have support workers who help our students with other aspects of their often chaotic lifestyles and keep them focused. Our education programmes are registered with OFSTED.
Len: But does it work?
Maria: One young man who had an attendance record of less than 25% at high school in September has now got an attendance record with us of over 95%. So, what we does, works. We’ve got dedicated staff who give our young people the chance to develop emotionally as well as academically.
Maria: "It's heart-breaking to see some children written-off at 13 or 14."
Len: Who else is here in the Roundhouse?
Maria: The building is owned by the Manchester Settlement but Manchester College and Mosscare Housing are also here. As well as being tenants they’re also partners in a broader support framework. So in this one building our young people get educational support from us, housing support from Mosscare and training from The Manchester College.
Len: Tell me about some of the other opportunities here.
Maira: “This downstairs space is open to all residents for any number of different activities.” Photo: Daniel Hopkinson
Maria: We’ve got a book club running now, and a chess club. There are adult literacy courses, playschemes and computer courses. We plan to turn the New Roundhouse into a learning hub for the whole community, adults as well as young people.
Len: What do you personally get out of your work?
Maria: I’ve a genuine desire to help young people. I was lucky, I had a happy childhood but it’s heart-breaking to see some children written-off at 13 or 14 for no fault of their own.
I’m a qualified accountant by trade. I have worked for a couple of charities and used to work in the motor industry before the Settlement. I joined at a very turbulent time for the organisation: the director at the time eventually left and it looked as if we would close. I was determined not to let a charity over 100 years old fold, so I started writing funding bids and won Lottery funding, money from Children in Need, corporate funds, and managed to keep going. Four years later here we are in this £2.2 million building.
Outside inside: the New Roundhouse has plenty of adaptable space. Photo: Daniel Hopkinson
But there’s still a connection with our past, with Manchester University. We’ve set up the East Manchester Legal Advice Clinic here where residents can get advice from solicitors and lawyers from the university. Law undergraduates and postgraduates sit in on the sessions as part of their training.
