Manchester’s Curry Mile of restaurants need to clean up their acts if they want to continue to attract visitors, according to Rusholme councillor Kate Chappell.
Playing host to more than 70 restaurants, the area in Rusholme is famous throughout the UK for having the highest concentration of Asian eateries in the country.
But Councillor Chappell, who sits on the local authority’s Economic Scrutiny Committee, is worried about the restaurants’ irresponsible disposal of their waste which threatens to tarnish the area’s reputation.
“If you walk behind some of the shops on the curry mile, you can see people aren’t looking after their waste they are just dumping it,” Councillor Chappell told MM.
“There is meat, packaging all sorts of things just getting dumped.”
A report by the council committee earlier this month outlined policy bidding to make district centres (i.e. local communities) more hospitable.
It stated an excessive amount of businesses such as bookmakers, hot-food takeaways, off-licenses and shisha bars can have a detrimental impact on a community.
Rusholme is rife with hot food takeaways and shisha bars, which the report implies might actually deter visitors.
But Councillor Chappell didn’t agree.
“We are not concerned about the number of hot food takeaways in the curry mile but we are concerned about the waste management issues they bring,” she said.
“Some of the feedback we’ve had from people with young children who have visited the curry mile is that they haven’t felt safe or felt like it is a family-friendly environment.
“We want to change that and make it a really great place to visit again as it provides something very different.”
The council has now introduced policy measures controlling the number of hot food takeaways within an area.
However, such is Rusholme’s reputation for these premises that no limitations on the quantity of establishments will be enforced.
Instead, Councillor Chappell claims addressing the issue of waste management in the area is the key to restoring Rusholme’s footfall.
Image courtesy of Paul, with thanks
