City news in 250 words

MANCHESTER CASINO plans are to be axed. After months of speculation, the Government has announced that whilst sixteen large regional casinos are to get the go ahead in the coming weeks, Manchester will miss out. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that there are better ways to regenerate the area. Manchester City Council is now considering appealing against the decision.

CHESHIRE POLICE may lose 100 officers because of budget cuts. According to reports, the force has not been allocated enough government money because Cheshire is a low crime area in comparison with cities like Manchester. Cheshire councillor Peter Nurse has said that the Government is missing the point that middle England needs policing just as much as areas with higher crime rates.

MP JAMES PURNELL is once again at the forefront of a faking row. Mike Doherty who works for the Stalybridge and Hyde Labour MP, sent a letter to the Tameside Advertiser criticising Tory leader Coun John Bell. Doherty pretended to be a Werneth resident in the letter in which he slated Coun Bell. This incident comes just four months after Purnell’s office admitted to superimposing the MP into a photo taken outside Tameside Hospital, to give the appearance he had actually attended.

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON is un-phased about having some of his star players away on international duty days before Sunday’s derby. The City manager told mcfc.co.uk: “It’s not ideal – but United are in the same boat. We have to live with it as well and not complain about it.”