Police have tonight said that "it is not necessary" to close down Piccadilly Gardens - hours after the force's Chief Constable and the council said they would be shutting it off.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday morning that he had asked his team to work with the council to shut down the troubled city centre space, signalling its closure.
Following his comments, city centre spokesman Coun Pat Karney said the council "agreed" with the chief constable, stating that "an emergency situation requires emergency action."
Both their comments came after police officers continued to make arrests in Piccadilly Gardens despite rules introduced earlier this week preventing people leaving their homes and banning gatherings of more than two people.
But in an about-turn, on Thursday night a GMP spokesman issued a statement saying the city centre area would not be shut down.
"Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Police have looked at how Piccadilly Gardens could be closed," they said.
"However, the opinion at the moment having assessed the latest situation is that it is not necessary.
"Both MCC and GMP will continue to monitor this closely and implement the closure should it be deemed necessary. Public safety is our shared priority."
Speaking on the Mike Sweeney show this morning, the chief constable had said: "Everybody knows that Piccadilly Gardens has been a hotspot for homelessness, for drug dealing and for some of the crime issues that we find as a real challenge.
"Sadly that has continued and is exacerbated in some way because everybody else isn't there. It's far more visible, what's going on.
"So I've asked my team to work with Manchester city council today to close Piccadilly Gardens.
"Why can't we use Heras fencing, get it all closed down? It's a public space. Other public spaces are closed. It will disperse some of the issue. It will enable us to deal with crime in a different way because we can't be running to Piccadilly Gardens every two minutes arresting people."
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