From the Reporter files - 12th June 2025

Generous customers chipped in to help Bailey’s Fish Friers, Smallshaw Lane, Ashton raise an impressive £700 with their annual charity fish fry.

It was the sixth year Peter and Anne Bailey had opened up the chippy on a Wednesday as a one-off extra day and donated all the takings to charity.

In 2005, the cash was split equally between the Macmillan nurses and Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Tameside Mayor Bill Harrison and members of the Tameside Masonic Lodges popped in for teatime fish and chips.

“We’re always amazed at how generous people can be,” Anne told our reporter. 

“It’s incredible how far some will travel for their chips just to support our event. Most people told us to put their change in the pot too.”

Ashton was still on a slow path to recovery a year after a devastating fire had ripped through the town’s landmark Victorian market hall.

Architects Taylor and Young, working with markets manager Ian Kelly, had drawn up detailed plans for the new hall which would eventually take shape inside the familiar old exterior.

In the meantime, it was business ‘almost as usual’ for most of the affected traders who had moved into the temporary ‘Phoenix Market’ on the Old Cross Street car park. Sadly for some, there was no way back from the loss of trade which had hit them hard in the immediate aftermath of the fire.

Denton residents, fearing the loss of precious green belt land, had won the first round of their battle to save the historic Hyde Hall Farm from developers.

Tameside Council voted unanimously against plans to build 25 homes on the site of the Grade II* listed farmhouse which had been derelict for many years. Five hundred residents had signed a petition opposing the plans.

The developers Loxley Homes confirmed they would lodge an appeal to the Secretary of State, while local councillors urged the landowners to accept responsibility and restore the farmhouse before it was too late. 

Protesters took to the streets as Tameside Council pressed ahead with moves to close Audenshaw Library.

Angry residents backed by local Lib-Dem councillors turned out with placards and banners opposing the £2 million ‘New Libraries for Tameside’ masterplan.

Promising ‘more books, brighter surroundings and better access’, it would also see Audenshaw and Waterloo libraries closing their doors for good by the end of July and Mossley Library moving to the George Lawton Hall in September. The vision was to maintain flagship services in Ashton and Hyde with a network of smaller libraries in key locations serving other parts of the borough.

Stalybridge Station’s famous Buffet Bar celebrated its 120th birthday with a weekend of family-friendly entertainment featuring a brass band and morris dancers.

Real ale fans were spoiled for choice with over 40 beers available including three specially commissioned from local microbreweries in Dukinfield, Mossley and Greenfield.

Visitors were encouraged to join warden Dave Cannon on a Sunday stroll around Werneth Low Country Park, following in the footsteps of the Duke of Gloucester when he officially opened the park in 1980.

The 25th anniversary celebrations also featured a new exhibition in the Lower Higham Visitor Centre designed by information officer Doreen Ward.

Tameside Council was facing a flurry of planning appeals from mobile phone companies after refusing permission for four new phone masts.

Councillors went against planning officers’ advice after receiving signed petitions from residents objecting to masts on Broadoak Road, Ashton, Yew Tree Lane, Dukinfield, Mottram Road-Woodend Lane, Mottram and Lancaster Road-Brecon Avenue, Haughton Green.

Agents from T-mobile and Vodafone said the masts had no proven health risks and they were legally obliged by the government to expand ‘third generation’ coverage which allowed video and photo messaging.