It’s like being in a nightmare, says our photographer, sadly.

We have been walking around Piccadilly Gardens and up and down its approach to the station all afternoon to see, up close, just how bad the many social problems blighting the area are now.

As we wait for yet another ambulance to arrive, this time for the man sprawled on the floor turning blue in the middle of the street, the answer hits home.

It has got bad. Very, very bad.

There have been years of grim headlines about the state of this district, but the situation has been turbo-charged in recent months by soaring homelessness and the latest scourge of the streets, the viciously addictive drug Spice.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

Walking down Piccadilly at around lunchtime – a route taken by hundreds, thousands of people entering the city every week from the station – almost every few yards there is someone with a sleeping bag or a begging cup.

Outside Spar, Piccadilly Tavern, Max Spielmann, Morrisons, Boots, Nationwide and Starbucks, not to mention the benches scattered around nearby, vulnerable people, mainly men, are sitting or staggering. Tattered belongings are scattered all around. Outside the old Natwest a filthy duvet is trampled onto the pavement with a discarded family-sized box of chocolate biscuits.

It is an intimidating walk and one many Mancunians now dodge by going through the Northern Quarter instead. Destitution is right up in your face here in a way it hasn’t been since the 1980s and 90s.

And Piccadilly Gardens, while currently being upgraded in a physical sense by the council, remains a crossroads for pretty much every kind of grimy activity Manchester has to offer.

One friend who works nearby tells me of finding human faeces in a phone box on her lunch hour. Even a public official mentions in passing that she has seen someone defecating in the middle of the day in the gardens, as children play on the slides.

At around 1.30pm we find two PCSOs under the gap in the middle of the wall – next to Cafe Nero – helping a young guy who looks completely off his face. They have sat him down in a chair. A few feet away I think I see a guy sell some drugs to someone, before sauntering off.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

On the benches near to the metal tree, past the guy with clear mental health problems talking animatedly to the wall, there’s a rough sleeper passed out. Nobody bats an eyelid, because they see it every day. A woman sits a few inches away, dipping a wooden stirrer into her Costa Coffee.

Outside Morrisons on the other side of the gardens there is another guy completely out of it on a bench, sprawled on his side, clutching a lighter. The homeless woman outside Max Spielmann now also looks totally comatose.

We call an ambulance out for all three. The call handler sounds weary. Ambulances are now being called out dozens of times a day to these kind of cases, usually involving Spice.

As our photographer Joel says to me, you could literally spend all day walking around Piccadilly calling out ambulances, one after another.

When I walk back past Max Spielmann a few minutes later the paramedics are there and the girl is half-slumped, pale, a glazed look in her eyes. An hour after that she is fully sat up but frozen, eyes shut, her hand paused inside a sandwich wrapper containing a half-eaten baguette as the world rushes past her.

This is early afternoon on a Thursday. Charity workers say part of the reason for the sudden visible drugs epidemic is that rough sleepers used to take Spice, originally, to help them get off to sleep at night instead of drinking. But it is highly addictive stuff and now they are taking it throughout the day. We didn’t used to see it when it was under the cover of darkness, but now it is all too visible.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

Since the drug was made illegal last year, sales have just switched from shops to the streets and Greater Manchester Police recently had a sweep of dealers around the gardens under Operation Mandera. The spots where we’re told they’re often to be found – don’t see much activity while we are there.

But people are managing to buy it from somewhere and pass it around among themselves. And there is still visible, blatant drug dealing going on next to the wall, yards away from the children’s playground.

If the afternoon was bad, evening rush hour is the point that the true awfulness starts to unfold. At around 4pm I nip back to the office and when I return at 5.30pm, the atmosphere has worsened.

As I walk up towards the gap in the wall again, a group of lads, all dressed in black, are standing exactly where I think I saw the drug deal take place earlier. Before I even sit down, I see them sell something to a girl.

A man sits down next to me and within a couple of seconds one of the group, a lad on a BMX aged no more than 14, rides up to him and offers him some weed. He declines.

On a nearby bench a man swigs from a can of cider using his good arm, the other one held up in a filthy sling.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

I call Joel. He has spotted some young men smoking Spice in a phone box.

As I walk to meet him, between the now-closed food market stalls I see a small old man swaying about like a zombie accompanied by a woman wrapped in a duvet.

Suddenly everywhere I look, there are pale, wasted people. It’s dystopian, like a horror movie.

“Oh God. There’s another guy gone over near McDonald’s,” says Joel and as he says it, I see the man.

He is lying in the middle of the street. As a crowd gathers – the man’s face starting to go a worrying grey-blue colour – I notice a police van parked up maybe 20 yards away. I walk over, but there’s nobody in it. I can’t find the officers anywhere. There’s nobody to ask.

A teenage onlooker tells me he was stumbling about before tripping and hitting his head. It’s not clear what’s wrong. He could be drunk, he could be on drugs.

(Image: Joel Goodman)

An ambulance has been called for the man and walking back through the middle of the gardens a paramedic passes me on his bike. I ask if he is going to the man outside McDonald’s. He nods, frowning.

A few minutes later the man is on his hands and knees, wretchedly throwing up on himself. The crowd has drifted away, although there are some teenagers laughing at him outside Boots.

At around 8.30pm we wrap it up. Joel - who has chronicled all kinds of disturbing social problems over the years including the Calais Jungle - is visibly troubled by what we have seen. The last time he spent a lot of time taking photos in Piccadilly Gardens was a couple of years ago and while it has never been the most salubrious environment, since then it has changed.

“It’s no longer the kind of place you go to, it’s the kind of place you get out of,” he says.

That was the Thursday. But the following night things take a turn for the worse. At around 8pm on Friday we count seven ambulances, three police range rovers and two panda cars in Piccadilly Gardens, dealing with 15 simultaneous Spice incidents.

"It’s dystopian, like a horror movie."

GMP tweet that they are having to protect the ambulance crews, who are getting abuse. By 9pm they tweet that dispersal powers have been granted to them, meaning they can ban certain people from the city centre for up to 48 hours due to drinking and Spice use. On Saturday night senior officers tell us they have dealt with 31 Spice-related calls in the last 24 hours.

I text one homelessness worker. “Things are reaching fever pitch in town and I’m extremely worried about it,” they text back. “It’s a f***ing disaster zone. I really don’t know what the answer is, but if we don’t have some kind of response soon, it can only get worse.”

Over the weekend, I mention that I’m writing this piece to a friend.

“It’s like there are two Manchesters now,” he says, one where cool young urbanites find it buzzing with possibility and the other one, where people rot away in front of your eyes. “You can hold them up side by side and they’re both in the city centre.”

It’s true.

Watch: Spice users in the city centre on Friday

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

In the same Piccadilly building as Max Spielmann, a trendy new Indian restaurant has been gathering rave reviews in the national press for its street food and craft ale. Everything Manchester wants to be, slap bang next to everything it doesn’t.

It is painful when you love a city to admit the scale of its problems. You want to concentrate on the good things, the amazing things, but all this is now too obvious to side-step.

In June, Manchester International Festival is supposed to be launching in Piccadilly Gardens, showcasing the city to the entire world. I couldn’t quite believe it when I was told.

We have said this before, yet sadly it bears repeating: Manchester is supposed to be what everywhere else aspires to, the gleaming office developments, the sexy bars, the booming economy, the skyscrapers, the capital of the north, the promised land.

Yet at street level, Piccadilly looks a lot more like hell right now.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What office workers say: "The sight of a person stumbling in a zombie-like state is as common as someone selling coffee."

The sight of a person stumbling around in a zombie-like state is as common in parts of the city centre as someone selling coffee according to workers around Piccadilly.

Many said very few people even bat an eyelid anymore.

Osman Riaz, 26, who works in Debenhams on Market Street, says he sees those affected by Spice all the time.

He said: "You see it pretty much every day. At least one person who is zonked out, glazed over, not moving.

"They look like they're dead. They don't move and you can't see them breathing. It's scary and it affects businesses because customers don't want to go in somewhere when there's people like that in the doorways. Sadly though these people are hooked on it and desperate for it, and what's more it's a daily part of life. You get used to it, and now it seems no different than walking past someone selling the Big Issue or coffee."

Colleagues Louise Partington, 35, and Stephanie Martingale, 32, walk through Piccadilly Gardens daily.

Louise said she runs to the bus stop at night because she feels so uncomfortable walking there alone.

"I work late and have to get the bus by Morrisons. I hate coming out late, especially when it's dark, they're all there and I literally run to the bus stop.

"It's scary, they walk like zombies and it's not nice to see."

Stephanie agreed the Spice epidemic was putting strain on the NHS. She said: "Yesterday at the market a guy was on the floor and the lady said 'leave him, he's been there three hours', the paramedics came before and he's done the exact same thing again. The paramedics and the ambulance service have been clearly all around town because of Spice and it's not nice to see for the kids either."

Dad Lee Morgan was out in the play area with his four-year-old son. He says it worries him what children are seeing.

The 32-year-old said: "It is a big concern especially when they're all laid out and my son is asking questions. It's one thing them sat there begging, seeming quite sober and not aggressive but if there's three or four of them lying in the road shouting at each other you really don't feel safe for your children or other people."

(Image: © Joel Goodman)

What the businesses say: "Yesterday a guy dropped his pants and went to the toilet in front of me"

Businesses around Piccadilly and Tib Street say the Spice epidemic is making their lives a misery.

Sam Priestner works at Flourish Manchester, a flower stall on Tib Street.

"It's been like six months of hell," she said."Its affecting us not only by putting off customers but people on Spice fall over and crash into the stall – they've broken plants, they've broken flowers, then we are having to ring security to get them to come and get them.

"They congregate near us. It starts off just two or three but then that turns into ten, they're shouting, they're arguing amongst themselves. Last week there were three ambulances called just while we were here. They just collapse and then come round, we've had them running up and down the street screaming, it's really shocking and quite scary for us.

"It's happening more and more and the last six months it's got worse. It used to happen every week but now it's every day."

Sam says that many customers who don't visit the city centre regularly have also commented on how things have worsened in recent months.

She added: "We have seen some disgusting things as well when they are completely out of it. Yesterday a guy dropped his pants and went to the toilet in front of me. The poor cleaner from Debenhams had to come out and clean it up.

"It's like it turns them into animals, they just don't care."

Kelly Andrews, from the Robinsons Bakery stall on Manchester Markets, said she has had to clean up faeces from the phone box meters from the market before and that she regularly sees someone collapse and be taken away by an ambulance.

Kelly said: “I have a lot of regular customers but some of them are a bit older and they don’t want to be stopping and buying my product because there’s people banging into them who don’t know what they’re doing because they’re on spice. They’re staggering all over the place, sometimes they are crawling. It’s not nice and people don’t want to see it.

“They’re on the floor vomiting all over themselves. It’s horrible especially for people with children,”

Nicola Whittle runs the Over the Rainbow stall on Manchester Markets. As she was talking to the M.E.N, a man who appeared to be on Spice was stumbling around just metres away.

She says it happens all the time, and described the drug-induced behaviour of a man a day earlier: “I was just standing there serving and he staggered up the middle of the market. He was walking a bit funny, we thought he was drunk or something, then he got to the end of my gazebo where the pole is and he got hold of it and started gyrating around it, as if he was a lap dancer.

“But as he was doing it he was pulling the gazebo over so I said ‘come on you have to let go of this’ and he was having none of it, and then he went into a bit of a trance. It was like he was frozen in a way, it was so strange.

“A couple of the lads came and tried to drag him off it but he was just stuck to the pole, we couldn’t get him off.”

She explained that it is quite often the same people, adding: “One lad was looked after by paramedics then two hours later he was back, took some more of the stuff and fell over and cracked his head open so another ambulance was called for him. It’s taking ambulances away from people who need them the most.”

Staff in Carrington Hairdressers say they have had to lock customers in the shop before because of people on Spice walking in.

"One came in and he tried to lick a teenage boy's head. Luckily his mum was next to him and she shouted at him to get away. The poor lad was terrified.

"We rang the police and they didn't come. They just called back an hour later to check if he'd gone."

“This bit of Tib Street is now infamous and people don't want to walk past it. If they do walk past they will have their head down, tunnel vision, and it has a big impact on us. We miss out on clients because they don't see us.”

(Image: © Joel Goodman)

What the council says: "Dealing with Spice is a priority"

Manchester town hall’s new chief executive says she has seen ‘for herself’ the issues highlighted by the M.E.N. - and has promised it is ‘very high’ on the council’s list of priorities.

Joanne Roney, who took over from Sir Howard Bernstein a week ago, said she wanted to reassure readers that the council and police are working together to try and sort out the area’s problems, including Spice use.

The council has in recent weeks been handing out public health leaflets in the city centre warning of the dangers of the drug, including information on what to do if you find someone suspected of an overdose.

Bosses said they were working closely with the police on that and other problems in Piccadilly Gardens, including through a new joint board set up specifically to look at city centre issues.

Ms Roney said: “I have seen for myself some of the issues highlighted by this report and I would like to reassure MEN readers that working with the police and other agencies to tackle this issue is very high on the council’s priority list.

“I know there is a strong sense of partnership here, in keeping with the shared Our Manchester vision for the city, and we all have a role to play in ensuring this area is both welcoming and safe.”

The council pointed to extra investment made in its homeless services in recent months, while a new interim city centre manager takes up post this month.

It is also working with the police to deal with begging in stages - starting by understanding who is begging and why, before taking a tougher approach - as well as investing in the redevelopment of Piccadilly Gardens itself.

Councillor Paul Andrews, executive member for health and wellbeing, said: “Working with a range of partners through the city’s Homeless Charter, we are investing heavily - more than £1m extra this year alone - in services to help keep homeless people off the streets in the first place and to support anyone who finds themselves homeless to move forwards in their lives.

“Warning vulnerable people who are being targeted and exploited by dealers about the dangers of Spice is just one small part of the extensive work which is going on to tackle this epidemic.”

Councillor Nigel Murphy, lead member on crime and community safety, said: “Together with the police, we are doing what we we can to combat the dealing and use of this illegal drug.

“The new City Centre Accountability Board - which includes very senior council, police and business community representatives, is discussing this matter in detail on Monday and we will ensure this remains a major focus. Sustainable solutions are neither easy nor overnight but will require both investment and resources which we are determined to deliver.”

(Image: © Joel Goodman)

What the police say: "If we could fill the streets with police officers we would have a chance at cracking this issue"

The police are trying to target those dealing Spice. Through Operation Mandera - their war against drugs and anti-social behaviour in and around the gardens - there have been 51 arrests, 20 of which related to those pushing the illegal drug.

City centre Inspector Phil Spurgeon said: “We know we still have much work to do alongside our partners. Spice dealers remain firmly in our sights.

“We will use the tactics we’ve put to good effect tackling cannabis dealers under Operation Mandera, to ensure those dealing Spice do not take root in our city centre.”

Fifty cannabis dealers have been jailed and 37 dealers banned from the gardens.

In the past three weeks, with the focus now on Spice, 165 people have been searched in and around Piccadilly Gardens, and 17 handed dispersal orders, which include short term bans.

Insp Spurgeon said: “Spice has been around for the past two or three years in different guises.

“I’m not being judgemental about the legislation, but the reality with the Psychoactive Substances Act is that it has shifted supply onto the streets.

“The product was probably more consistent in the head shops. Now it’s more varied, the make-up is constantly changing.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

“That’s why we’re seeing people collapsing, as the drug becomes more potent.

“The unique challenge with Spice, compared to cannabis, is the effect it has on individuals and the impact on the body.

“It can be very scary. We’re having to do much more harm reduction work and the ambulance service is facing increased demand.

“We have to tackle anti-social users. We can’t have a situation where people come into the city centre, buy Spice, take it and cause trouble.

“It isn’t illegal to possess, but its ingredients are mostly Class B drugs, so we use powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act to stop and search people and take enforcement action.”

Depleted police numbers make things increasingly difficult for officers. Give us the resources and we’d tackle everything,” Insp Spurgeon said.

“What we can do is continue with the tactics we know have worked with Operation Mandera, including having high visibility in and around the gardens and having plain clothes officers on patrol.

“That helps us pick off the street level dealers. From there, we can use intelligence to get further up the food chain to the distributors.”

Insp Spurgeon said helping vulnerable Spice users - some of whom are homeless or suffer from mental health issues - remains a priority.

“Our first thought is always 'does this person need support?'.

“If they do, we can help them with that and point them to the right services. But if they refuse help and continue to cause trouble, it becomes an enforcement issue.”

Speaking about the city’s Spice problem, Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “The police have had some people who have gone through very, very near death experiences, where they’ve essentially been dead and have been brought around.

“Spice is phenomenally cheap and it’s constantly changing. The Spice we see today isn’t the Spice we’ll see tomorrow.

“The reality is that if we could fill the streets of Manchester with police officers, we would have a chance at cracking this issue.

“Things are more difficult now because we’ve lost a quarter of our officers because of cuts.”

(Image: Joel Goodman)

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) spokesperson said: “The Trust has seen an increase in the number of 999 calls received following the use of psychoactive substances

“We have noticed a particular increase in calls to patients who are under the influence of these substances in Greater Manchester although we are unable to give specific figures.

“Unfortunately a wide range of people are falling victim to these substances and the detrimental effects they can have.

“They can cause very unpredictable symptoms including violent behaviour, which makes it difficult for ambulance crews to manage the patient’s condition. We are working with police and other agencies to address the problem.

“We would urge anyone to consider the health risks and wider consequences of taking illicit drugs and illegal highs.”

Additional reporting by Sam Yarwood and Todd Fitzgerald

The MEN has pledged to support and publicise the Manchester Homelessness Charter whenever relevant. If you are affected by issues surrounding homelessness in any way, or if you want to do something to help, you can go to: streetsupport.net