Mum covers anti-homeless spikes in Manchester with cushions

Jennie Platt said she got a bee in her bonnet after the spikes were installed on Marsden Street

A mother incensed at the installation of anti-homeless metal spikes outside a Manchester building has hit out at the owner - with cushions.

Jennie Platt, from Prestwich, got "a bee in her bonnet" after reading about the spikes on Marsden Street in the Manchester Evening News.

She recruited her sons George, 11, and Sam, 10, and they "piled down to Primark" to buy cushions to cover them.

"This is not the Mancunian thing, it's not how we treat people," she said.

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Ms Platt, who is an estate agent, added: "The building owners are treating human beings like pigeons.

"I woke up on Sunday morning with a right bee in my bonnet and had to do something."

Pall Mall Medical, which rents part of the building, said the company had "zero involvement in the spikes"

Jennie Platt and the boys bought sandwiches and cushions to cover the spikes

After watching her sons play rugby for the Sedgley Park Tigers on Sunday morning, the boys recruited a couple of their friends and they went shopping to buy soft furnishings and sandwiches, which they left outside the building.

Ms Platt said: "I know they won't last and I knew they'll get wet, but the people who manage that building need to know how to treat people."

Ms Platt said she though the spikes were "just awful"

GVA, which manages the building, said: "Deterrents were installed on a small area off Marsden Street on Friday 27 January. These deterrents were removed within 48 hours."

Pall Mall Medical, which rents part of the building, said the company had "zero involvement in the spikes".

A statement on Twitter added: "This decision was made fully without our consent or involvement."

Seventy-eight people were sleeping rough on Manchester's streets in autumn 2016 - an increase of 11% on the previous year, government figures show.