'Piccadilly Gardens is not the gateway to Manchester any of us want - we will clean it up', vows GMP boss

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

It's the steadfast policing operation that has transformed the face of Britain's 'counterfeit capital' in less than a year. Now, Greater Manchester's top cop is promising a similar effort to 'clean up' another of the city's most notorious spots.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson says Operation Vulcan will target Piccadilly Gardens 'in a matter of weeks'. It's the same operation which launched as a crackdown on organised crime and the counterfeit trade in Strangeways and Cheetham Hill.

The Greater Manchester Police boss told BBC Radio Manchester this morning (August 29) that Vulcan had led to 215 counterfeit stores being shut down, with the operation 'literally ripping out tens of millions of pounds from organised crime'.

Now, he is promising police will target Piccadilly Gardens with 'vim and vigour' ahead of the area's regeneration. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features "I think Piccadilly Gardens is not the gateway to Manchester that any of us want," he told the Mike Sweeney programme. "I think it looks poor, it does attract too many of the wrong sorts of people, it creates a sense of lawlessness, a lack of safety, there's too often the smell of cannabis around the place and it does need tidying up." Chf Con Watson said 'Vulcan Piccadilly' would see a 'similarly focused effort' to the one which has transformed the so-called 'Counterfeit Street' area since last autumn.