News
GMP raid Manchester uni halls issuing multiple £800 fines to students in common room
‘People were traumatised by it, we were literally just having dinner with friends’
Police have handed out multiple £800 fines to students in Fallowfield for allegedly holding a ‘large gathering’ in their common room.
Officers entered halls of residence twice over the weekend in south Manchester to question students over their socialising.
Furious parents and students have accused Greater Manchester Police of heavy-handed tactics facilitated by the University of Manchester, the MEN reveals.
Students say police raided Owens Park halls of residence at around 11pm on Friday and 2:30am on Sunday over a potential breach of lockdown rules.
Under coronavirus law, police do not have power of entry and need a warrant to enter and search premises.
The exception to this rule is if they have ‘reasonable grounds to suspect that a person within is potentially infectious, and they need to direct or remove the person for screening and assessment’.
However, under the Manchester University’s student accommodation contracts, the uni and ‘anyone authorised’ by staff has the right to enter without prior notice.
GMP insist students who were fined showed ‘blatant disregard’ to the rules and that their ‘proactive patrols’ inside the accommodation were agreed with the uni in advance.
One student spoke to the MEN, saying that a number of her flatmates were issued £800 fines each on Friday because more than 15 people from the same block were in the common room.
She said: “There’s four floors with up to fourteen people on each one. Each floor is your household and at the start of the year the common room was locked.
“We asked for it to be unlocked because otherwise there’s nowhere else for us to sit other than our rooms. I think when police came there was about 15 people in the common room, but they were all from our block.
“The way the building is laid out makes it impossible not to mix between floors. People are always walking between floors. And when we go to the canteen we’re all put in there together.”
She continued: “They brought us into the common room and were getting people from other floors, there must have been 25 people in the end.
“We weren’t able to social distance so it seemed to really defeat the point. They said we were all getting an £800 for being part of a large gathering.
“People were weeping.”
“It’s stupid – they’re fining us for being in a student common room. This whole accommodation doesn’t fit the regulations.
“We’re all mingled together all the time, we can’t stop that, we share everything. People were really upset.”
Students were advised not to return to campus this term unless their course required face-to-face teaching like medicine, due to the latest national lockdown. One student estimated that around 70% of students did return.
The University of Manchester outlined its policy saying: “If you are living in a flat then this is considered to be a household. If you are living in halls that are corridor based then we have identified rooms (maximum of 15) that will be designated as a household and you will be required to ensure that you use the facilities which are for your household only.
“Any government guidance for households will apply in all cases.”
Students say they feel the issue did not require the involvement of the police.
One student said: “We got an email last week reminding us about parties. But nothing about the household rules and using the common room. It’s so disproportionate the force they applied.
“Today they knocked on my bedroom door at 2 in the morning when I was asleep. They said it was just to chase up some details about the night before.
“It’s awful, who’s letting them do this? I haven’t seen a Uni security guard this whole time, it’s just hordes of police.
“They turn up in a van with 10 to 15 of them and storm in at once and scare everyone to death. Surely campus security could have handled this?”
Another student added: “People were traumatised by it, we were literally just having dinner with friends.
“The police just wouldn’t understand. They said we shouldn’t be at uni in the first place and that we weren’t supposed to use the common rooms.
“It’s like walking into someone’s house, it wouldn’t happen in a normal household outside uni. It’s just cruel.
“Everyone is just terrified now and no one is leaving their rooms – we don’t know when police might come back.”
Commuters could be facing the steepest rise in the cost of train travel in more than a decade just months after prices were already increased.
It has been predicted today that train prices across England and Wales could rise by nearly 5% before the New Year.
The 2021 rise in prices was delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic when train travel was at an all-time low, however, tickets still saw a price rise of 2.6% in March.
Abhijit Tembhekar / Flickr
And this morning, the Retail Prices Index for July 2021 was confirmed as 3.8% by the Office for National Statistics, meaning passengers could see fares rise by 4.8% in 2022, which would be the largest hike since 2012.
This means that the cost of rail travel could increase twice within ten months, and would see a Manchester-Glasgow off-peak return rise by £6.30 to £94.90, according to Metro.
Though all hope isn’t yet gone – changes to the fares in 2022 are still yet to be confirmed.
Jon David Houghton / Wikimedia Commons
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “No decision has been made on national rail fares.
“The government is considering a variety of options and we will announce our decision in due course.”
This news has come as train travel in Manchester and beyond is on the rise – earlier this month, we reported that zero cases of Covid were found in Manchester Piccadilly Train Station, despite thousands of commuters using the station’s services as offices reopen.
News
UK to welcome more than 20,000 refugees following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan
Reports claim that a number of these refugees will be housed in hotels near Manchester Airport
Heroic school boy clears 18 tonnes of rubbish which had been fly-tipped along country road
Kind-hearted Mancunians thanked after charity receives huge donations for Afghan refugees
Manchester has a new Indian bottomless brunch with fizz and cocktails like mango mimosas
Americans are baffled at how far people actually walk in the UK
Train fares set to increase again in ‘biggest hike’ for a decade
