News

Manchester mela ‘sabotage’ claim


28/ 7/2003

By Steve Hammond

MANCHESTER giant Asian mela at Platt Fields has been cancelled sparking an angry row between organisers and the City council.
Members of the Manchester Mela Partnership are accusing town hall leaders of sabotaging the event by demanding for the first time a £22,000 licensing fee.
Council leaders countercharge that the partnership is not representative of the Asian community and has organisational weaknesses.
There have been five previous Manchester melas with last year's attracting 40,000 plus Asians and whites over the weekend.
Mela organisers claim the council's stand could make Manchester, with its commitment to multi-culturalism, the only city or town with a significant Asian population to not have its own major Asian festival.
But the council insist the mela could go ahead if a "new broader" committee is put together in time though one council spokesman admitted it would be fair to say the mela was "in crisis".
Mela organisers point out the licence fee, added to other council costs, would mean the mela partnership face a bill of over £30,000 before a single ticket is sold.
They have asked for an explanation as to why they suddenly have to pay it and they are threatening to put their grievances before the local government ombudsman.
The Platt Fields mela, a stone's throw from the city famous curry mile, has continued to draw larger and larger crowds attracted by top line Asian groups, ethnic stalls and a fun fair.
Among the visitors are thousands from the city white community who enjoy the events cultural diversity.
There is speculation in Asian circles that the council stand is "political" and something to do with the drubbing Asians gave to Labour candidates in last May local elections over the Blair-backed invasion of Iraq.
The Chief Executive of the Manchester Council for Community Relations, Nasrullah Khan Mogal is leading efforts to put a new mela committee together to salvage some of this year's planned event.
He said: "We may be able to stage something smaller but will have to wait until next year for a full sized event."
He added: "I met the Mela Partnership and listened to their problems and then held a meeting with council leaders and officers. They said they were concerned that they had not had any accounts from earlier melas despite the fact that council grants had been put towards costs.
"There was also concern that members of the Bangladeshi, Indian and Nepalese community were not included in the mela organisation so we are trying to include them."
He added that the licensing fee was a separate issue but admitted any future mela organisation would find it difficult to pay that amount of cash 'up front'.
The city council say it is "totally committed" to supporting a community based mela in south Manchester.
A spokeswoman said apart from the licence fee, the mela partnership had been denied grants from the North West Arts Board and the council special regeneration budget because the mela management and the event itself should be more representative of the local Asian population.
She added: "We are meeting with a range of community organisations to ensure an event takes place. We will be building on previous contributions made by the different communities in the organisation of previous melas."
Council leader Richard Leese, who represents an area of north Manchester with a large Asian population, said he was not aware there had been any problem with the licence fee.
He said: "The south Manchester mela gets funding from the North West Arts board and the council through the special regeneration budget.
"This year the committee failed to deliver in administrative and organisational terms so they did not get the funding.
"We still want a mela and we are helping to put together a broader based community mela organisation to deliver a great south Manchester Asian festival."
Members of the mela partnership would not comment on the row but it is understood they deny failing to provide accounts of previous melas claiming to have provided the council with the last year's mela accounts in January.


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