'I am proud to have known him, to have worked with him and to have called him a friend'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukTogether they spearheaded the rebirth of Manchester, helping to drag the city out of its post-industrial slump. Here, Graham Stringer, Blackley and Broughton MP, pays tribute to his friend Sir Howard Bernstein, the former Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, following his death aged 71 last Saturday. I first met Howard Bernstein 40 years ago when I became leader of Manchester City Council.
It was not an obviously auspicious moment. Howard was a relatively junior 31-year-old clerk. He was working on presenting evidence to the inquiry into the expansion of Stansted airport that resulted in the Eyre Report.
Manchester's case was that the huge public subsidy to Stansted Airport would damage Manchester Airport and was unfair competition.
Howard was on top of the technical detail and was keen to impress on me the importance of lobbying Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary John Prescott, amongst others. READ MORE: Sir Howard Bernstein: The visionary who put the swagger back into Manchester He was enthusiastic and helpful, but I and I don't think anybody else could have foreseen how important Howard would become to the future development of Manchester.
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