Salford protest: Shutters came down, police circled the area, but the crowds never arrived

Shutters came down on Salford Shopping Centre ahead of a 'planned protest' - but the event failed to materialise. Organisers had advertised plans to gather at Salford Precinct at 1pm on Tuesday (August 6) against a backdrop of other similar events across the country.

In response to the plans, Greater Manchester Police announced they had authorised a Section 60 Order across Salford until 10pm, granting officers special powers to stop and search people. Yet while many businesses closed their doors early, the crowds never arrived.

Roughly every 10 minutes throughout the afternoon and evening, a police car or riot van would circle the precinct. Small groups gathered in anticipation of major disruption every so often outside the shopping centre.

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But no such protest materialised. Almost all businesses at Salford Shopping Centre decided to close - including some with signs telling customers to go elsewhere.

A small number of businesses either remained open, such as Pound Bakery, or reopened after a short time, including Aldi. The peace of the afternoon was only broken on occasions to stop and search groups of youths who had gathered around the shopping centre.

On one occasion, officers arrived on blue lights to search the car park near Aldi. They recovered a brick, before searching a number of teenage boys nearby.

Similar groups were stopped on at least two other occasions during the day. But, aside from some small knots of teenagers, no crowd descended on the precinct.