Salford City Council is spending around a fifth of a £600,000 fund, given to it to support the Jewish community after the Heaton Park Synagogue attack on street art, the JC can reveal.
The funds were allocated to the council by the government as part of Operation Hutton, a recovery scheme put in place to provide support and security to the Jewish community in the wake of the attack last Yom Kippur, which left two Jewish men, Melvin Cravitz and Adrin=an Daulby, dead.
On receipt of the grant, the council wrote: “On Thursday, October 2, 2025, a terrorist attack commenced at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.
“This led to immediate support and the development of a short, medium and long-term recovery plan.”
The council stated specifically that the recovery plans “were developed to support Jewish communities in the aftermath of the attack”, adding they were intended to “rebuild confidence and resilience within their community and to challenge direct and indirect antisemitic and racist rhetoric by supporting cohesion structures, programmes and projects within the city”.
However, council documents seen by the JC reveal a budget decision approved by its cabinet on September 22 this year allocates £120,000 of the fund to a “Centenary Project” which will “celebrate the city’s centenary year”.
The project consists of creating “murals” to mark the anniversary as well as a “city-wide grant for community organisations to apply to put on events in their neighbourhood/city”.
According to the council documents, the sum from the fund being spent on the Centenary Project will “directly benefit between 250 and 300 people”.
The document states that this allocation has been listed as an “internal DDN,” meaning it is being used for council purposes other than those for which it was originally intended.
A spokesperson from the council told the JC: “The proposed £120,000 allocation for the Centenary was intended to support communities to share in arts and creative activities across Salford, celebrating the distinct identities of different communities while bringing people from different backgrounds together through their neighbourhoods, which includes opportunities for Salford’s diverse faith and cultural communities to participate in and help shape activity.”
But in internal communications between a representative of the council and a city councillor, also seen by the JC, the representative said: “It was one of a number of grants from government in the aftermath of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, but was specifically to promote cohesion and tackle antisemitism across the city as a whole, and with all communities in mind.
“The funding for the centenary element is specifically to support the work in each of the city's eight neighbourhoods, to create lasting community art (in the form of murals), and for that art to be designed by and with community groups in each area - bringing different people together to help describe and visualise what makes each part of the city unique.
“Our view is that this is entirely consistent with the guidance for use of the funding. The funding is being used to support the engagement work, the design work, and the actual painting - which will also involve those same community groups.”
The councillor has since confirmed to the JC that the allocation is being “reviewed”.
Meanwhile, the JC can reveal that none of the £600,000 has thus far been allocated directly to Jewish community security, according to council documents.
Instead, on top of the £120,000 on the Centenary Project, £15,000 is being spent on “Positive Masculinity Workshops”, £20,000 is being spent on football for children who are at risk of being expelled from school, and £10,000 is being spent on a “city-wide music project”.
A further £10,000 is also being allocated to the “Dootsi Iranian Project” intended to “help Dootsi (community group) focus on the integration of diverse communities from Iran, Afghanistan, Kurdistan to promote community cohesion and promote knowledge, social welfare and wellbeing”.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition on the council, Reform UK Councillor Lewis Croden, told the JC: “This fund was established to support Jewish communities after the attack at Heaton Park, and that duty remains.
“We will look carefully at how the money has been allocated and hold the Labour council to account for its proper use.”
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.