Life on Ancoats' Cutting Room Square which has banned cars for six months - but is it too late?

Ancoats is the Northern Quarter’s cousin. Old mills have become expensive flats, and businesses have flourished around the area’s centre, Cutting Room Square, which has been named among the world's coolest streets by Time Out.

Now, a six-month trial has been launched to see if closing the roads around the square could be a permanent fix to traffic issues, while also creating outdoor seating for businesses. It comes after the square off Blossom Street, which is home to many cafés, bars and restaurants, was temporarily pedestrianised during the pandemic.

Local councillors say the move, which saw businesses spill out into the square with tables set up in the streets over the summer, creates a 'European feel'. The trial, which started last week and could become permanent, is hoping to gauge the public’s response to the car-free zones and is part of Manchester council’s commitment to provide safe and attractive, traffic-free public spaces.

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The Manchester Evening News headed down to Cutting Room Square to talk to businesses and residents about the changes. Harrison Boase, supervisor at Seven Brothers Ancoats, has mixed views on the move. He said: “It’s nice to have it out there during the summer, but now during the winter, we’re going to either have to have heaters out there that are expensive to run, especially with cost of living and everything.

"It’s been put in at the end of the summer, if we’d had this from like June, July, onwards it would have been mint. We don’t have a lot of storage space as is, so if we have to start storing heaters somewhere.

“I think it would be better if they made the whole lot