The Mancunian Way: Hours from opening... then it all went wrong

Birthday plans left in ruins, hundreds of pounds wasted on train tickets and fans left 'gutted'. Tonight was supposed to be the night the £365m Co-Op Live arena opened to great fanfare with a showpiece gig by Peter Kay.

But just hours away from opening, it all went wrong with the news the 23,5000 capacity venue wasn’t going to be ready in time. Clare Donovan, from London, was among the fans left in the lurch. She had bought six tickets for the show for her mum's 70th birthday but now the family are now hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

"I had to call my mum just a few hours ago and she was really upset,” she said. “Me and my brother, wife and friend were also travelling up as a surprise, so three lots of people have spent money on trains, hotels and have booked time off work," she told the Manchester Evening News.

“We have lost a day's holiday and there is no chance we can go next week. My parents are in Manchester at the moment and due to stay for two nights; it's so disappointing when you plan to make your mum's birthday special to have it ruined and get this at such late notice."

Work on the venue, the largest in the UK, is still not complete. The council’s building control department has not signed it off and emergency services have concerns.

But it’s understood on the ground warnings have been made for weeks, if not months, that the arena was not going to be ready in time. In a special report Neal Keeling, Joseph Timan and Stephen Topping tell the inside story of how the countdown to 'showtime' dramatically stalled.

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