Greetings from Manchester UK on New Year’s Day 2006. New Year celebrations got into gear late on New Year’s Eve, as crowds of people converged on pubs and clubs in the centre. On Upper Brook Street I saw leggy girls in waist-level skirts and black bodices step out of a taxi and walk on high heels to the cash machine. Celebrations climaxed as the clock counted down to midnight Manchester time, and continued into the early hours. At 4am there were still people on the streets making their way home, many unsteady on their feet.

New Year’s Day in Manchester was overcast and comparatively mild after the cold snap. Later the sun shone through the clouds, and there was a spectacular dusk sky.

Downtown Manchester was quiet, though some shops were open, including the recently-opened Next store. The Manchester Wheel was in operation, carrying visitors high above the city. Trains, trams and buses ran a limited service. Cinemas and theatres were closed.

City centre construction sites were eerily deserted. The Beetham Hilton Tower dominates the city, a silent monolith clad waist-high with blue-green glass. Later in 2006 it will be receiving its first guests and occupants. In the Spinningfields district the most impressive sight is the steel framework of the Civil Justice Centre, with its jutting end floors like the open drawers of a giant filing cabinet.

Local news media had little to report today, apart from a serious incident in New Mills involving a man and a knife. On Teletext, local news websites and even on the radio news, there were no details of the New Year celebrations in the city centre. It seems we can find out what was happening in Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York, but not our own city. One piece of news came to EOM via text message from the Friends of Victoria Baths: Sunny Lowry, first woman to swim the Channel, now in her nineties, and campaigner for the Victoria Baths, has been awarded a CBE.

EOM says local news media ought to offer a continuous 24 hour city-based news service. In the meantime there’s the Manchester Blog, which aims to summarise concisely the most salient news items of the day, take the pulse of the city from street level, and generally keep an eye on Manchester.

That was first edition of the Manchester Blog. The next edition won’t appear until the launch of the new Manchester website some time in the coming weeks or months. I’ll also be revealing what ‘EOM’ stands for.