Manchester launches Wythenshawe consultation

The city council has unveiled its vision for the town centre, including the construction of a food hall, mobility hub, public square, and nearly 1,600 homes.

Project lead Savills and design lead 5plus architects have been advising Manchester City Council on its Wythenshawe Town Centre Development Framework. Solid Ground is the placemaking strategy lead in the scheme.

As teased earlier this month, a consultation concerning the proposals has begun. The consultation will continue through 25 November, with documents available for perusing at manchester.gov.uk/consultations.

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council executive member for housing and development, urged those living in Wythenshawe to engage with the consultation.

“We have big ambitions to improve the area for this community, but this only works if the result is welcomed by the very people that use it daily,” he said.

“Wythenshawe town centre has a huge amount of potential and this investment will help improve the offer for residents and attract people to the centre as well – while also creating new jobs and new homes for the community.”

The key elements of the scheme break down as follows:

• Culture hub: The former Co-op building would become a cultural hotspot with workshops, studio spaces, performance space, installation areas, and a community cinema. An extension of the building would be demolished as part of the plans, leaving the building with nearly 25,000 sq ft.
• Mobility hub: Featuring electric vehicle and scooter charging points, taxi rank drop off and a place to hire, repair and store bicycles – the mobility hub aims to encourage sustainable travel when possible. It would still offer 1,032 parking spaces. The around 500,000 sq ft mobility hub will be a refurbishment of the current civic centre multistorey car park. The roof of the mobility hub could feature community allotments and an active play area.
• Food hall: A 33,500 sq ft food hub would be one of the later elements of the project. The proposals call for a two-storey building with roof canopy for covered seating. There would be 40 units for vendors on the ground floor and an additional 16 on the first floor. The food hall would sit next to the Co-op building. To gauge interest in the project, the council would introduce temporary F&B offerings in shipping containers on the old market site.
• Employment spaces: Under the council’s proposals, the 110,000 sq ft former Barclays data centre building would become fit for purpose again. Additional offices would be created above the shops along The Birtles. New jobs would also come from Lidl’s proposed supermarket on the former Gala Bingo site.
• Homes on brownfield land: The council has highlighted a series of brownfield sites as suitable for a total of 1,596 homes. Under the framework, the Forum car park site would be capable of having 214 homes, while The Birtles could hold 167. The old bus station site could have 231 homes and “The Restaurants” site could have 204. The BP petrol station site would have 116 and the cleared former Shell site could have 588 homes. The city council also proposes repurposing Alpha and Centron House into 76 apartments.
• Public space: Wythenshawe would receive a public square comparable to Stanley Square in Sale that could host curated events and activities throughout the year. In addition to this central square, there would landscaping throughout the residential developments including rooftop vegetable gardens and a three-acre park. Also proposed: a green corridor along Rowlandsway and improved pedestrianised routes.
• Decarbonisation: The council wants to see the retrofitting of buildings already in Wythenshawe so improve their energy performance. There would also be solar panels installed on roofs throughout the town centre.

5plus architects is the design lead for the project. Credit: via MCC

The city council’s Wythenshawe revamp plans are the subject of its £20m Levelling Up Fund bid.

While the council will have to wait until closer to the end of the year to find out if its bid was successful, the Wythenshawe proposals got a boost when the council completed its acquisition of the 350,000 sq ft St Modwen’s shopping complex.

Learn more about Wythenshawe at Place’s Greater Manchester’s Emerging Development Hotspots event on 16 February 2023.