All we’re asking for is respect – Manchester businesses back campaign to halt rising antisocial behaviour
Antisocial behaviour in Manchester city centre shops and leisure spaces must be reported say city leaders as a new campaign has been launched to Stop It!
Led by CityCo, which runs the city centre Business Improvement District (BID) and backed by Greater Manchester Police (GMP), Manchester City Council (MCC) and city centre businesses, the campaign aims to encourage staff in Manchester city centre to report anti-social behaviour.
Nationally, incidents of anti-social behaviour against service staff are massively increasing. The British Retail Consortium recent survey found that violence and abuse against shop workers nationally rose to 1,300 incidents a day in 2023 – double that of the previous year.
Incidents such as verbal abuse, physical attacks, disruption, and damage to property are common for many businesses. Miki Christi, who runs her own retail business the Manchester Shop, located in one of the city’s great institutions – Afflecks.
Miki Christi said: “People think it is acceptable to haggle and then when you politely tell them it is not an option, some people get extremely aggressive with me.
“I set up the Manchester Shop in memory of my Mum and Grandma, strong Northern women who were proud of the city that they were from. It’s my love letter to Manchester. I am proud of what we do. We employ a small team, use local designers, and support the local economy.
“All we’re asking for is respect,” she said.
City leaders are working together to encourage businesses in Manchester city centre to take a zero-tolerance approach. The Stop It! campaign will help inform businesses how to report incidents and serve as a reminder to perpetrators that their behaviour is being reported.
The campaign, which will be rolled out across city centre businesses, shares examples of the issues real service workers face across all sectors and aims to tell perpetrators that their behaviour will not be tolerated in Manchester city centre.
Sacha Lord, Night-time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, says: “This is a welcome campaign to bring helpful resources together and support teams.
Hospitality staff work long and very often, anti-social hours. They are there to serve customers and make sure everyone has a great experience.
“Please treat all staff the way you’d like to be treated and if you do have that ignorant mate, just tell them…Stop It!”
GMP, Superintendent Nicola Williams, insists the police presence in the city centre has grown and says they want businesses to report all all incidents of anti-social and criminal behaviour: “Our policing provision in the city centre has grown in recent months, we have more neighbourhood officers on the beat, and are expanding our Neighbourhood Crime Team.”
Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council said: “The Stop It! campaign is a great way of helping businesses understand how important it is to report incidents and work together to stop unwelcome behaviour.”
The city centre management company CityCo, which runs the Manchester Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP), says members can report anti-social behaviour or verbal abuse to a secure intelligence network.
Vaughan Allen, Chief Executive of CityCo and Manchester City Centre BID, says: “The rise in antisocial behaviour and aggression towards service staff is causing huge problems in our city centre. The people working in retail, hospitality, banking, and front-of-house are Mancunians – they are our family, our neighbours, our colleagues. They shouldn’t have to face abuse when just doing their jobs.
“We want to assure service staff that reporting these issues is important; that it is taken seriously, that action can be taken against perpetrators, and that victims can be supported. We need people to Stop It!”
In a related campaign, Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the Manchester-headquartered trade union Usdaw said they were pushing for a new law to protect retail staff: “The UK Government has repeatedly failed to act in the face of an epidemic of retail crime, rising theft from shops and assaults against retail workers. It is disappointing that they have no measures in their legislative programme to tackle this issue. We support Labour’s attempts to amend the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill, so that the law is strengthened to protect shopworkers from violence, threats and abuse.
“A protection of shopworkers law is also supported by many retailers. It already exists in Scotland and has secured over 500 convictions. We also need more neighbourhood police with patrols in town centres, respect orders to ban repeat offenders and an end to the £200 threshold for investigating and prosecuting shop theft. Most of all, we ask the public to support our campaign by respecting shopworkers.”