Bonfire Night cancelled again across Manchester parks as council blames 'rising costs'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Major public bonfire nights and fireworks organised by Manchester Council will not take place for a second year running with bosses blaming "rising costs" and "pressure on budgets".

Manchester City Council has confirmed that it will not be reinstating bonfire events including the huge celebration at Heaton Park, and that its position remains the same following the review post-Covid.

Last year, council-organised events for Bonfire Night were cancelled following a two-year lay-off during the pandemic. They say they have looked carefully at the cost benefit of putting on huge bonfire events and that with continuing rising costs and pressure on budgets, they feel that the focus should be on delivering a "bespoke" programme of autumn and winter activities for local communities, including pumpkin carving, Halloween in the City, and the Christmas parade. READ MORE: 15 incredible things to do in Greater Manchester as Autumn begins this October READ MORE: Inflatable monsters and giant puppet parade to take over city centre this Halloween Councillor Lee Ann Igbon, Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods, said: "As Halloween and Bonfire Night approach, we want to remind residents that council-organised bonfire events will again not be taking place in our parks this year. "We have looked carefully at the cost benefit of putting on these huge bonfire events and with the continuing rising costs and pressure on our budgets, we feel that our focus, like last year, should be on delivering a bespoke programme of autumn and winter park activities for local communities starting with half-term in late October. "We received positive feedback from delivering smaller scale events in parks, that concentrated on what local communities