Cash-strapped Manchester town hall spent over £60,000 entertaining Channel 4 bosses for the day in a doomed attempt to woo the broadcaster, a Manchester Evening News investigation has revealed.

Tens of thousands of pounds were shelled out on a lavish evening bash at trendy Northern Quarter food hall Mackie Mayor - including a 45-minute surprise performance by poets and actors - following a pitch session at the top of the Beetham Tower.

In total the council, which needs to save £20m next year, spent £121,000 bidding for the channel's new headquarters.

TV bosses ultimately selected Leeds and Glasgow.

We can also reveal the bitter warfare between Manchester and Salford councils that underpinned the bid process prior to the event.

Although Greater Manchester presented a united bid to the broadcaster, in private the two cities had spent months bitterly fighting over the opportunity.

Salford had originally assumed MediaCity would be put forward as the only location - before discovering Manchester town hall wanted to put forward its own sites. Reluctantly the city agreed to a Greater Manchester bid that included proposals on both sides of the Irwelll.

However Salford's fury was only fuelled further when, at the eleventh hour, Manchester council's leader Sir Richard seized control of the entire process from Greater Manchester combined authority officials.

The resulting pitch day - to promote both cities - saw Channel 4 executives travel up from London for two events in Manchester city centre on June 19, both paid for by Manchester town hall.

TV bosses first attended a question-and-answer session at the 47th floor Beetham Tower penthouse owned by architect Ian Simpson, an event aimed at showcasing the region’s assets against a backdrop of panoramic views across the city centre.

Attendees included Sir Richard, Andy Burnham, Salford mayor Paul Dennett, senior council officials and the actress Maxine Peake.

According to an M.E.N. Freedom of Information request, the event cost £16,376, most of which went on external consultants.

It included £7,650 to the creative agency Modern Designers, whose mission statement says it is ‘dedicated to the principle that good design can change the way people think, what they believe in and how they behave’.

A further £3,150 was spent with the economics consultancy Metro Dynamics, a firm recently set up by Mike Emmerich, former chief executive of Greater Manchester think-tank New Economy.

Deansgate coffee bar Grindsmith received £550 for refreshments, while £829 was spent with Marketing Manchester.

The consultancy Diversity Travel was paid £885 to organise transport for media apprentices invited to speak to the TV executives.

The rest of the cost went to various parts of Manchester council for printing and communications.

Ian Simpson did not charge for the event and neither did Maxine Peake.

Broadcasting chiefs were then treated to an evening at fashionable Northern Quarter food hall and drinking venue Mackie Mayor.

When they arrived, the bar appeared to be full of fellow customers, but as the delegation settled down to eat, the lights went up and the entire space turned out to be full of performers.

TV executives were then provided with a bespoke theatrical show lasting nearly an hour.

Of the £45,000 spent on the event, £11,000 was paid for the venue hire, while £9,250 went to Cheers Ta, a Manchester publisher of performance poetry.

The ‘master of ceremonies’ for the event - the name of whom the council has not disclosed - received £800.

Rose Marley Management, a creative consultancy connected to Manchester’s Sharp Futures arts outfit, was paid £4,000, while Sharp Futures itself received £902.

Just over £18,352 was spent with a range of companies for sound and lighting.

While ostensibly an event aimed at promoting Greater Manchester as a whole, the internal politics underpinning it echoed the historic war between Manchester and Salford over the BBC's headquarters nearly a decade ago.

Channel 4's bidding process had followed a similar pattern to that of the BBC, with cities across the country asked to pitch for its new hub outside of London.

When that opportunity first surfaced in 2017, Salford council had assumed MediaCity - by now home to the BBC, ITV, part of Salford University and a range of other media outlets and digital firms - would be put forward as Greater Manchester's chosen location.

That assumption was apparently shared by the region’s then-Labour mayoral candidate Andy Burnham, who in a letter to the government in March 2017 wrote: “While I know you will want to look at other locations, I believe strongly that MediaCity makes Greater Manchester the only viable alternative outside of London as a home for the headquarters of Channel 4.”

Manchester disagreed, however, arguing a range of city centre sites should also be put forward, including the old Granada Studios site on Quay Street.

It is understood Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham largely took a back seat in the row that followed, with insiders suggesting he did not want to get caught in the cross-fire between the two rival leaders.

With the town halls remaining bitterly at odds, Greater Manchester Combined Authority submitted a bid promoting several locations, with GMCA officials left to head up the process.

A few days before the pitch was due to take place, however, Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese announced via email - to the immediate fury of Salford mayor Paul Dennett - that he would be taking control of it, arguing that up until that point the process had not been handled well enough.

Sue Woodward - chief executive of Manchester's Sharp Project digital hub and a long-standing ally of Manchester council's leadership - was then appointed to lead creatively on the project.

In total her consultancy received £42,555 from Manchester council for bid writing. A further £7,000 was spent with the consultancies Jazz Maps and Ekosgen.

The bid documents, obtained by the M.E.N, are introduced by Sir Richard Leese, who is also in charge of economic development at Greater Manchester level.

While appearing to promote Manchester slightly more than Salford, the bid includes facts, figures and supportive examples about both cities.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Salford council had been deeply suspicious throughout the process that the city was being undermined, however.

Insiders believed Manchester town hall had been meeting with Channel 4 in private to promote its own agenda, suspecting it was not willing to lose out to MediaCity a second time after its humiliating loss over the BBC's headquarters.

In attempt to find out, the M.E.N. put in Freedom Of Information requests to both councils for a list of meetings - either in person or over the phone - with the broadcaster.

Both said their first meeting with Channel 4 had taken place on June 19, the day of the pitch events.

However leaked minutes also obtained by the M.E.N. show that ten months earlier - in September 2017 - Sir Richard and Manchester city centre regeneration official Pat Bartolli had in fact met with four Channel 4 bosses, including its then-chief executive David Abrahams, at which they discussed relocation possibilities.

Asked why those details had been omitted from its response, the council said it had been 'before the launch of the official bid process'.

At that point it also admitted an additional 'informal' call had taken place between Sir Richard and Channel 4 executive Jonathan Allen on June 20, one that had not previously disclosed.

Manchester council also failed to disclose full details of its expenditure under the FOI, only releasing them when the M.E.N. approached it for comment and threatened to go to the Information Commissioner.

In total the town hall spent more than £121,000 on the bid, including £50,000 on bid writing, around £16,000 on the Beetham Tower event and £45,000 on Mackie Mayor.

Few if any councillors within Manchester council appear to have been aware of the expenditure.

All the costs have come from the Chief Executive’s directorate, said the council, although it added that it would be ‘seeking support from these costs from other partners’.

GMCA and Salford council insiders expressed skepticism at that outcome, however.

Where bid costs were concerned, Salford council said it had spent only £514 on train tickets for two officers to meet executives in London for the day.

It also commissioned a report by think-tank Respublica on the city’s economy that explicitly argued Channel 4 should move to MediaCity, but claimed this was a broader piece of research not directly related to the bid.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority spent nothing on the bid, the results of which - announced on October 30 - eventually saw Channel 4 pick Leeds and Glasgow over the conurbation.

Asked about both the expenditure and the tensions with Salford council, a Manchester council spokesman said: "In his capacity as portfolio lead for the economy for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Sir Richard Leese was the lead elected member on the bid to persuade Channel Four to relocate to the city region and Sue Woodward was the bid lead with the agreement of the combined authority.

“It should not be forgotten that this relocation would have represented an estimated economic boost to Greater Manchester of more than £60m by 2022 while creating or supporting more than 1,200 jobs and our collective ambitions to pursue such opportunities, on behalf of the city and Greater Manchester, are undiminished."

Salford council declined to comment.

Asked whether he thought the money spent on June’s pitch event represented value for money, mayor Andy Burnham said: “The problem was this whole process was flawed.

“It worked well for Channel 4 but nobody else. By its very construct it was always going to lead to a to a wasteful bidding war between cities.”

He said he did not think the tensions between Manchester and Salford played any part in the conurbation losing the bid, adding that putting a united Greater Manchester bid had been the right approach.

“Greater Manchester submitted a strong joint bid that put forward a number of high quality sites to Channel 4, including MediaCityUK,” he said.

“This was the right approach as it would have been wrong to limit the opportunities available to Channel 4.

“By giving more flexibility we sought maximise our chances of success.

“Channel 4 were clear that while Greater Manchester had submitted a very strong bid, they chose Leeds because of the transformational impact it will have on the creative media sector there.”

Asked whether he should have taken more personal ownership of the bid - rather than allowing tensions between the two cities to escalate - he said: “The bid that was submitted to Channel 4 was a strong one with a range of talented people at its heart.

“We don’t see how the bid could have been significantly improved.”

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