Residents have hit back at “anti-homeless spikes” installed outside a building in Manchester city centre by covering the area with pillows and cushions.

The metal spikes, designed to deter rough sleepers, were installed on a sheltered area outside the private Grade II-listed building Pall Mall Court in Marsden Street.

Manchester city council condemned the “demeaning” devices and vowed to meet the owners of the building to try get them removed.

But residents have taken the matter into their own hands by placing colourful cushions and pillows over the spikes.

Jennie Platt, an estate agent, said she was angered by the “really mean and Scroogey” anti-homeless spikes so decided to take action. “It’s a spot where people can keep warm and sheltered, people don’t need to be that mean,” she told the Manchester Evening News.

“A few people were watching us and wondering what the heck we were doing, but there were quite a few homeless people who saw it and said they were going to come back there later. It’s not doing anyone any harm them being there.”

A spokesman for the property agents GVA, which manages the building, declined to comment.

Anti-homeless spikes have provoked a backlash when installed in city centres around the UK, forcing companies including Tesco to remove them.

There has been an increase in rough sleepers in Manchester, up from 70 in 2015 to 78 in 2016. A total of 1,600 children were living in temporary accommodation in September 2016.



Pat Karney, the council’s city centre spokesman, said: “We don’t want to see any of these devices in our city centre. This is not the answer to rough sleeping, it’s demeaning in that way. There is a lot of this in places like New York and it’s not the solution. It really aggravates and alienates people.”

Andy Burnham, Labour’s mayoral candidate in the city, recently pledged to end rough sleeping in Manchester by 2020. “We cannot end homelessness overnight, but as mayor I want to bring together churches, companies and voluntary groups to build a new partnership,” Burnham said this month.

“What we can see on our streets is the human cost of cuts to benefits, mental health, drug and alcohol services and a range of council social care services. We need to help people break out of extremely difficult circumstances and turn their lives around.”