City News in 250 Words: 1 July, 2011

ALMOST 600 schools in Greater Manchester were closed yesterday due to strikes over pension reforms. Police predicted a turn-out of 500, but were shocked when four times that figure drilled through the city. Public sector workers took the streets of Manchester to protest against the proposed cuts to their pension schemes.

A DISPUTE between a judge and a cabbie has ended up in court. Corin Timpson and cabbie, Gary Phillips, had an agreement in which Phillips would work for Timpson and be paid monthly. Both were happy with until April last year when Timpson didn’t pay over several months. District Judge Khan, at Manchester County Court, ordered Timpson to pay the cabbie £1,705. He appealed but later paid Phillips.

MANCHESTER'S comeback after the IRA bombing is being used as a guideline by Christchurch in New Zealand. Sir Richard Leese has been asked to share his experiences of the terrorist attacks in Manchester 15 years ago. A total of 181 people died as a result of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake.

MANCHESTER City Council spent more than £36m paying off staff as part of a huge redundancy exercise. The council went though more than 1,500 voluntary redundancies after having its government funding cut by 20 per cent. In January, Manchester Council announced a voluntary redundancy scheme as it was forced to cut a fifth of its workforce; 1,600 full-time equivalent workers have had their applications to leave accepted, whilst 1,000 have already left. All departments of the council were affected by the cuts.