Campaigners demand answers from Manchester on Ryebank Fields
A local activist group that opposes plans for a housing development on 10 acres in Chorlton are asking the city council why a decision on its protest application to retain the land as a community woodland has not been determined yet.
Last August, Ryebank Fields Community Group tabled an alternative proposal for the site next to Longford Park on the Manchester/Trafford border that Step Places and Southway Housing want to redevelop into a contentious 120-home residential scheme.
The group says the application should have been determined by now and that Manchester City Council has failed to explain why it hasn’t.
Step Places and Southway’s application was lodged in February 2025, some six months before that of RFCG, and is also yet to be determined. In May, the developers updated their proposals in a bid to address some of the concerns raised around drainage and flood mitigation.
Local Green councillor Cllr Chantal Kerr Shepherd said: “The community’s application to protect Ryebank Fields as a woodland, meadow and a nature rich space was validated by Manchester City Council on 28th August 2025 with a target decision date of December 2025.
“Nearly six months past that target, no planning committee date has been set despite repeated requests to do so. The residents who submitted this application did so in good faith and by the council’s own timetable, the application should have been presented to the committee months ago. I am calling on Manchester City Council to list this application for committee immediately, and to explain publicly why their own target has been missed.”
A Manchester City Council spokesperson said: “All applications are always considered on their own merits based on both national and local planning policies.
“However, as this planning application remains live, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Under government planning guidance, major applications should be determined within 13, although this can be extended up to 26 weeks.
Plans to redevelop Ryebank Fields, located on the border of Manchester and Trafford, were controversial even before landowner Manchester Metropolitan University appointed Step Places and Southway as development partners.
The land is a re-wilded former landfill site and is used by locals as an incidental green space.
As a result, opposition to the loss of this amenity has been vociferous. A protest group that has received support from Extinction Rebellion has decried proposals to build homes on the site, claiming the plans would ‘decimate’ and important community asset.
It is the group’s view that Ryebank Fields should remain undeveloped and open to the public.
The group’s plans propose no development at all and would seek to preserve the land as a community woodland.
The application can be viewed using reference number 143413/FO/2025 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
I know this one, it’s because it’s not their land
By Anonymous
Haha, welcome to the Planning System!!
By Deja
Might have something to do with a local and mayoral election.
By Rich X
Get the Step Places and Southways Application approved and get it built.
As ever the image in the article screams no shortage of green space in the area!!!!!
By Anonymous
Chorlton nimby’s sat in their high value houses are at it again! This site is perfect for the proposed development. MMU as owners should fence the site and stop people using it to walk their dogs.
By Anonymous
Would be interested to hear why determinations aren’t being made – possibly the endemic understaffing in the public sector currently?
By Anonymous
@ July 14, 2026 at 4:45 pm
By Rich X
I think you could be right!
By Rye
How does this square with the Green Party’s views on immigration?
By Anonymous
I used to live in Chorlton near here. This is a great place for housing. Once upon a time it was all fields and the houses that exist were built on them. Longford Park is massive and provides an excellent facility for green and play space.
By Anonymous
I like spaces for recreation and sports. Put places used only by dogwalkers are pointless.
By Anonymous
Manchester City Council frequently leave applications undetermined. There is another application in Chorlton where the applicant has taken the case to the Planning Inspectorate. I don’t understand why panning approval can’t be given to this group. They can’t do anything with approval as they don’t own the land.
By Anonymous
Frustrating isn’t it.
By Anonymous
no offence.. they do not own the land, the owner doesnot want to sell it to them so on what planet do they think they have a right for a planning application to be determined… Get the homes built…!
By Anonymous
Exactly, if you wanted to go on an actual nature walk you’d go to chorlton meadows, if you want to be in a green space locally you’d sit in or play in Longford park. I’ve pretty much only seen dog walkers in ryebank, I live really close to here and would always choose a proper wild space for a walk or go to the park if I can’t be arsed.
By Anonymous
It’s an entirely spurious application by a group hell-bent on making sure other people’s lives remain immeasurably worse, in order that they can still occasionally walk a dog on a polluted field next to a massive park. Absolutely bonkers stuff.
By YIMBY
I just hope the Director of Planning recommends the Step Places & Southways Application for approval.
By Anonymous
Plenty of green space both in Longford park and the meadows. I say build on
By Anonymous
If the campaigners are so keen on open space, they should go a step further and apply to bring back all the fields shown in the historical maps in their Phase 1 Geo-Environmental Survey
By YIMBY
They literally have a huge park next door. Let’s get this houses built!
By Dan
Appeal against non determination.
By Anonymous
@Several commenters… you don’t have to own land to apply for planning permission on it. I could apply to build a nuclear waste plant on your garden if I wanted (it wouldn’t get permission (I would hope!) but I could still apply).
By Anonymous
These NIMBYs give the good people of Chrolton a bad name. Speaking of planning applications, who gave the greenlight to that monstrosity of a house on the corner of Ryebank and Longford?
By MainRoadMary
I would imagine – because applications like this should be relatively straightforward – that there is something fundamentally wrong with the submitted information. This has probably been communicated by the case officer to the applicant. The applicant probably doesn’t agree, doesn’t understand or doesn’t have the means to counter the assessment and it is therefore stuck in limbo. The council probably could determine it now but it would be a refusal. They could, alternatively, wait for the applicant to provide corrected or missing information and determine it then. Even if it gets approval it’s meaningless as the landowner has no intention of delivering it. The only way it could ever be implemented would be if the landowner were to sell – they’re unlikely to do that until their own application is determined as that would have a fundamental bearing on the value of the site.
By Anonymous
Why don’t the protest group raise funds and purchase the land from MMU and then they are free to do what they want with it. Until that point the owner of the land is free to pursue whatever outcome they want and of course the protesters can object said application but unless the application is uncompliant with planning policy then there’s no grounds for refusal.
By Hamza