Spikes to prevent homeless people sleeping rough outside a building were removed after an estate agent protested – with pillows and cushions.

Jennie Platt, who owns Jennie Platt Estates & Lettings in Manchester, was furious at the installation of the anti-homeless metal spikes outside the private Grade Two listed building in the city.

She and her two sons George, 11, and Sam, 10, plus a couple of the boys’ friends, covered the spikes with cushions on Sunday morning.

They also left sandwiches.

Platt said: “This is not the Mancunian thing. It’s not how we treat people.

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

She said of her gesture of cushions and sandwiches: “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.”

Commercial agent 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.”