What really happened in town on Saturday afternoon

The disturbing sight of young people from traveller communities up and down the country - many of them children - being herded onto trains by police at Manchester Victoria railway station on Saturday has prompted anger, consternation and concern.

The obvious upset, however, isn't confined to people from those traveller communities.

The question being privately asked of Greater Manchester Police bosses by the Mayor's Office is whether it was really proportionate to use a so-called 'section 34' order to cover the whole of Manchester city centre. For some, it is an indiscriminate, blunt weapon that risks collateral damage.

The order, made under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, allows police to turn people away from a specified geographical area if they think there might be trouble - and arrest those who refuse.

READ NEXT: Traveller girl, 13, ended up 'hysterical' in Grimsby after being herded onto train by police in Manchester

The Manchester Evening News understands that the senior officers were well aware their decisions might well attract some public flak, but they sanctioned the order to prevent a repeat of trouble from previous years.

The arrival of hundreds of young people from traveller communities from all across the country to enjoy Manchester's Christmas markets has become an important date in the social calendar of those communities.

But it has also proved something of a headache, particularly for security and retailers in the Arndale centre which has been a particular focal point for young visitors.

In November 2022, police were called to break up a 'huge' gathering of young traveller people at the Arndale amid reports that fire alarms had been triggered, fireworks set-off and people were 'running up and down the tram tracks' in Exchange Square.

Police were, and are, sensitive to perceptions that senior officers appeared powerless to act despite what appeared to be widespread disorder.

An even larger gathering of youths happened at the Arndale again on Saturday.

Councillor Pat Karney, the council's city centre spokesman, was there and he tweeted that there were about 400 youths gathered, aged between nine and 19.

He told the Manchester Evening News he saw no trouble 'unlike previous occasions' as he praised the efforts of police and security staff.

However, the mass gatherings seen at the Arndale in previous years formed part of the decision-making of GMP bosses when they decided to sign the dispersal order. The city was also packed with people out Christmas shopping and football fans heading to the Etihad stadium for Manchester City's match against Tottenham Hotspur. It was very busy.

The dispersal order, signed by a senior police officer at 12.13pm on Saturday, was 'in response to a rising number of reports, and in the interest of protecting the public from excessive anti-social behaviour, disorder, and criminality over the weekend', said the officer who signed it.

GMP later clarified the order was 'due to intelligence' that groups of people were en route to Manchester on trains 'causing antisocial behaviour', with similar reports of trouble in the city centre already coming in.

The order was signed and the effect was that cops were dispatched to Victoria and Piccadilly railway stations under instruction to stop the groups and send them back.

Mobile footage shared widely online showed uniformed officers escorting young people into trains at Victoria, with many of them clearly unclear where exactly they were going to end up.

One girl, aged 13, who had come from Doncaster, ended up in Grimsby.

Her mother contacted the Manchester Evening News and said her daughter had called while she was being 'pushed' onto the train and was 'hysterical'.

She said: "She didn't have a clue where it was going. She was crying and screaming. I could hear the police officers saying 'we don't care where you go, just get back on that train and get off now'. I was saying to put the police officers on the phone but I could hear them saying 'I don't want to speak to your mother - get on that train'."

Jonny O'Brien, 26, claimed his 14-year-old sister was 'bullied' onto a train to Manchester Airport.

A woman from Lancashire, 34, who declined to be named, said she was 'pushed, pulled and shouted at' by police at Victoria before being forced onto a train to York. "I haven't done anything wrong apart from going to the Christmas markets. It was an absolutely horrible experience," she said.

Other footage showed police officers preventing some young travellers from entering stores in the city centre. The force confirmed later that they had broken up two fights and at least 40 individual dispersal orders were made telling people to leave town.

The Traveller Movement, a national charity, said the police action was 'shocking' and 'completely unacceptable'. It is considering legal action. Greater Manchester's deputy mayor, Kate Green, called for a 'full report' from GMP.

Most of those who visited on Saturday came from the north west and the Welsh borders. It was supposed to be a day out 'in their finery', according to the charity, which confirmed some visitors were as young as 11 although these were said to be accompanied by older siblings.

As an MP, Ms Green was a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, a forum for parliamentarians to address issues facing those communities. The group also called for a 'full investigation' saying 'over-policing and targeting of minority ethnic communities is never acceptable'.

It's notable that, despite numerous requests by the Manchester Evening News, Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell has so far refused to comment.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) the charity, Ms Green and senior officers of GMP will hold a crunch meeting at her offices. It will be a key test of the 'back to basics' policing promised by Stephen Watson when he was installed as chief constable in 2021.

As well as an increase in the scale of arrests and the use of stop and search powers, a central plank of his approach was the increased use of 'dispersal orders'. They have typically been adopted following outbreaks of serious disorder or violence, for instance stabbings.

But the geographical area covered by Saturday's dispersal order - virtually the entire city centre - was huge, and for the first time it appeared to target a specific community.

Senior officers at GMP are believed to be confident the legislation was used correctly, but whether that position will survive a storm of protest and obvious anger within travellers communities is a question that only time will answer.