Manchester Fining Hellhole.

[Minnierose11]

We recently visited Manchester from Devon for a birthday break, never been before and wanted to sample the city's shopping and eateries.

I'll never visit again - the whole place feels like a scamming hellhole.
One morning walking to our car (parked in a car park) at £21.95 for 8 hours and over when a EHO stopped us and tried to fine us £200 on the spot for supposedly spotting us drop fag butts on the floor ... WE DONT EVEN SMOKE!!
My husband refused to give our details and we walked off to which he claimed to call the police and followed us all the way back to our hotel where we sat in our room for 40 minutes feeling rather panicked!!

Now back at home, we've just received a fine for driving through a 'bus gate', of which being from Devon never even knew was a thing!! I know of bus lanes, clearly marked on the road but a bus gate??
No vehicle access between the hours of 6am and 9pm... and a sign which supposedly indicates that which I've never seen before in my life. Not even in the Highway Code..
and I know fear we may have another one or two on the way, because we were none the wiser! Just blindly following the sat nav around a city we'd never visited before.

Never again!

@RonniePickering what does that even mean???

People getting tribal over their local council vs that of somewhere they went for a poorly planned weekend break is hilarious 😂 as is defending your right not to know the Highway Code and just drive about breaking it.

The last time I was in Manchester (just before covid) I couldn't believe how many people were begging. My hotel was very close to the station, yet we were approached ( by people who appeared drunk or high) several times. It was extreme and different from any other city I've been to.

That's Yorkshire, ya pudding.

I don't live in Devon but I had not heard of a bus gate until I saw something on Twitter about a week ago!

I do know about bus lanes. I don't know if this particular one was in Manchester but the signage looked very confusing from the photos!

As for the littering fine, that does sound like scamming. They will have targets to reach - same with parking fines so they desperately have to find people to fine.

Also agree Liverpool is a much better place to visit (and Leeds).

What? I've never heard that. Nicknamed by who?

I love Manchester. DH is from there and I’ve been a regular visitor for over 30 years.

It was a media thing in the 90s in reference to the gang shootings that happened, mostly between gang members. I lived in Moss Side at the time and although it was sketchy I never saw any guns despite having Gooch gang members living on the same street. e. It was a lazy sensationalist label then and even more so now.

I lived for many years in South Manchester then the city centre and still work in the city centre. For cars it might be a pain but as a pedestrian it's significantly better than it was. I used to get the bus up Oxford Road where OP encountered the bus gates and when it was open to all it would take so long to get along on the bus and was a nightmare on a bike. The stretch by the university was always always congested and the pollution was so high. Remove the cars and now the buses move much quicker (and are electric for the most part) and pollution levels have dropped making the whole University quarter much much nicer to walk around and a lot fewer accidents too

I’ve never heard of a bus ‘gate’ either, bus lane yes.

Mind you, I’d never drive into a big city, I always go by train (when they’re running)!

DS (17) travels to Manchester and Liverpool quite regularly. He loves both cities equally, although some comments about Manchester have made me a bit wary! He likes to shop at the Trafford Centre or the Arndale! He’s never mentioned issues with drunk/drugged up people.

I’ll have to ask him when he comes home.

The only thing DS moans about Manchester is the dull and wet weather which he says is much worse than where we live in the south east.

Manchester is a brilliant, vibrant city with a huge and thriving arts, music and cultural scene. Loads of theatres, galleries, museums and public art, hundreds of gig venues, tons of independent shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. Lots of nice suburbs with good links to the city centre too.

It's certainly duller and wetter than the SE. Whether it's "worse" is subjective. Overcast and drizzly is better for not getting sunburnt. It's also better for cotton threads not snapping, hence the damp weather was the basis of the region's whole economy not very long ago!

Isn't it!

There's a bus gate on Ranelagh St.

I hope you didn’t venture to Piccadilly Gardens on your trip. That would have finished you off! I agree though. Manchester is ridiculously expensive to park and you have to be careful driving. That’s when you can even niece due to the shit traffic.

I don't care about your experience, tell me where you're from so I tell you how fucking shitty and judgemental the people from there are.

Why would imagine I'm the misfit here? You're the one celebrating ignorance.

Yeah "I've never heard of a bus gate" as if that is something to brag about.

Please MNHQ can we have a block button?

Mancunian here, it is not advisable to drive around the city centre - the public transport in MCR is fantastic and you should have utilised it. (Speaking as someone who has also been stung by more than one bus gate fine)

I would have thought the same logic would apply to most city centres?

Ooooo yes please.

I've never heard of a bus gate but last time I drove to Manc I was fined for being in a bus lane and spent £25 on parking for the day. I agree it's best to travel in by train but sadly have to go by car next weekend to drop DC at uni.

We'll have to disagree about the Trafford Centre OP. It's a pit of doom.

Just for my own curiosity (and the fact that DS (17) enjoys travelling by train to Manchester with his mates) please explain a bit more about Piccadilly Gardens?

@MagentaMadge picadilly gardens is a large concrete square thing just beside the main bus station and on the main walk into town from Picadilly station. In the day it’s just a bit grey and unattractive but at night it’s known for all the crackheads congregating. DH and I actually walked through after a lovely afternoon in Manchester and it was grim- not dangerous but loads of rough people conked out on the floor (at 10pm!).
Otherwise Manchester is a brilliant city! We had a great day going round different places for drinks yesterday, it was so buzzy and had a brilliant time. Honestly your son will be miles away from PG in a bar having a ball with his mates!

As a native Mancunian in exile in Devon, I found the OP very odd. SatNavs tell you that road signs take precedence. Did you not bother to update yours? The weekend you were there, I had to drive from Devon to Cambridge to help DD move house then to Enfield to drop DD at a tube station as there were no trains. I could have driven her to St Pancras but although I'm a competent and experienced driver, I didn't fancy driving in a large city to a part I don't know well at all. I then drove up to Manchester, staying on the outskirts before returning to Devon. The day before I went, I updated my SatNav.

The tram in Manchester is efficient and inexpensive, especially compared to the rip-off buses in East Devon. For £4.90 I could travel for the entire day on the Metrolink. I can't do the 8 miles into Exeter for that, notwithstanding the mile and a half walk on single track roads with no pavements and a 60mph speed limit to actually get to the bus stop from my village.

As soon as I retire, I'm moving back to Manchester. It rains loads in Devon, so that doesn't bother me. Devon is a cultural vacuum with a lot of rude, xenophobic and ignorant people. Driving standards here are dire, but people have no option. Parking in Exeter is extortionate - yesterday I spent £4.50 for 2 hours' parking in the centre. The park and ride would have been a similar amount but would have added another hour to the morning. Unlike Manchester, the Exeter non-driving options don't work. I still have to drive to the outskirts of the city, I have to wait for 10 - 15 minutes for a bus at either end and they get stuck in the traffic. Begging in Exeter is rife - I encountered more homeless people on Exeter High St yesterday morning than I did walking from the Etihad to Piccadilly Gardens last Saturday.

OP, stay in Devon. Your attitude fits in well here.