Burnham plays down Old Trafford land dispute
The Greater Manchester Mayor suggested compulsory purchase powers could be used if negotiations over land needed for Manchester United’s £2bn new stadium but added that reports about a stand-off between the club and Freightliner were premature.
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester yesterday, Andy Burnham said negotiations between the club and haulage firm Freightliner – which owns land next to Old Trafford that Manchester United needs to build its planned 100,000-seater stadium – are in the early stages.
“[The talks] are far from being concluded,” he said.
Referring to the Guardian’s story at the weekend about a £350m difference of opinion between the two parties in terms of the value of the land, Burnham said the newspaper “jumped the gun”.
“I think everyone should file that one away as a bit of a summer story,” he said.
Burnham has been a supporter of the project from the outset and has pushed for the relocation of Freightliner from its current site next to Old Trafford to St Helens.
The move would not only free up space for a new ground – the centrepiece of efforts to transform the Wharfside area of Trafford into a mixed-use development featuring 15,000 homes – but also free up capacity for passenger services on the Liverpool-Manchester line and ease the bottleneck through Castlefield.
If negotiations do not progress, Burnham said there is “plenty that can be done”.
“GMCA has approved the establishment of a mayoral development corporation to oversee the masterplan for the wider area and facilitate some of the land assembly the club will need to build the new stadium,” he said.
“We are just getting that going. That MDC has compulsory purchase powers if needed. There is plenty that can be done if agreements can’t be reached. But there is a lot to play out here.”
It was the club and local authorities who jumped the gun announcing a major plan featuring land they had no ownership of. It does seem inevitable they will need to use a CPO. The club’s claim to complete the stadium by 2030 always beggared belief, but even more so as times goes on – they’ll be lucky to start construction by then.
By Hippopotamus
A lot to play out, eh? Like substantial delays to the ‘ready in five years’ timescale the mayor and club trumpeted at MIPIM. Oh, and strictly speaking, the proposed replacement rail terminal is in Newton le Willows, a good 7 miles east of St Helens.
By Yicker
Notice that Burnham fails to mention that the proposed St Helens site is currently a large area of ‘Green Belt’ countryside adjacent to Winwick Lane that will be destroyed. Why are they not moving it to the ‘Brownfield’ Parkside site?
By Mark My Words
And they will be if needed. I can see why this story was pumped out and then blown up so quickly, lots of envy out there and people desperate for this not to happen but it is and will be a game changer for the club and for Manchester. Total none story from the start in reality.
By Bob
The messaging between the parties here is terrible, but the objectives are clear:
The relocation proposal was intended to win Hearts and Minds for a move away from the historic stadium The plans needed to be grandiose to achieve this. Now they have found a useful scapegoat to blame for those plans not being realisable. Next they will come up with an alternative proposal that is either a) cheaper, or b) will involve them locating away from the Old Trafford area entirely.
My money is on the latter.
By Ram Tailor
@Mark my Words – the Parkside rail terminal site is not in green belt and is allocated in the St Helens Local Plan for that specific use.
By Yicker
Totally agree with Bob, well said. Lot’s of envy out there, no surprise. Had a feeling the Guardian had jumped the gun in their reporting, anything to grab a headline.
By Degsy
Will the new rail freight terminal be better or worse located than the current site? If there will be hundreds more lorries heading up & down the M62 as a result, then surely the terminal should stay put?
By Anonymous
Yicker – That’s what I said! Parkside is brownfield but that’s not where they’re proposing moving it to. Its going on green fields next to Winwick Lane
By Mark My Words
Glad to read other peoples comments on relocation of freight terminal and that it is actually on the boarders of Lowton, Newton le Willows and Winwick, NOT St Helens. And it will be taking up a huge amount of greenbelt (all for a football stadium). Sick of hearing Andy Burnham and others saying it is in St Helens.
Hope they can’t come to some agreement for price of land and not use bullying tack-tics of compulsory purchase.
By Carolyn
Move with times regeneration of the area benefits the community. And brings Wembley to the North . Money saved.
By Colindinnen
Please need to learn the different between Green Belt and green fields, they are not the same. The Parkside site has been allocated for a rail freight interchange since the early 2000s so is not a direct consequence of the old trafford redeveloped, just a useful pre-agree alternative location thats been in the works for decades.
By J
Why not relocate the rail terminal to the Port Salford where there is one proposed (so still in GM) and maybe the stadium too with a campus, fan zone and training ground.You could put in a new junction in off the M62 with a metro link extension and free up the congestion around the existing site and redevelop it for other uses, offices, housing & apartments and other uses
By Anon
If the land required is 250 Acres and Man U think it’s worth £50M then that’s just 200k an acre?
By The Dog
If the Freightliner valuation has emerged from that organisation I think they have already taken CPO advice on how to use the provisions within CPO legislation to value the land. If it is £350m then the question that Burnham has to answer is if a CPO is pursued does the GMCA have the cash to underpin the CPO. Suspect not. So any talk of using CPO powers at this juncture is another example of the utter stupidity from those « leading » this proposal.
By Anonymous
Burnham clearly has no idea how a CPO works.
By Anonymous
BJ, that was my understanding. Parkside isn’t Greenbelt and was earmarked for freight terminal over 20 years ago nothing to do with the MUFC relocation.
By Anonymous
Few people appear to be getting confused with St Helens the town and St Helens the borough here – clearly the proposed site is in the latter
By red rose