Renaker skyscraper cluster approved

Wholy moly, that is a lot of extra council tax coming MCC’s way, and they still can’t afford to invest in some green space for all these people??
I wonder were all that money goes…

where*

Great! The wind tunnel created by an other Simpson monolith (BT) is just about to get worse. We’ll be able to fly down Deansgate.

I’m sure Castlefield residents would love MCC to buy “plot G” at huge expense from a private developer to create a park just for them but it would leave a big unsightly gap in the built environment around there and wouldn’t much benefit the wider city.

I’d much rather MCC set a strategic, long term objective to assemble a decent amount of land in a more central area to create a park that would benefit the whole of the city.

Renaker don’t let the grass grow do they.

You consider a small recreational grassland in the heart of a residential area an ‘unsightly gap in the built environment’ ??? I would hate to see the world through your eyes my friend.

It is not just for the residents of Castlefield it is for all the Salford/ Whalley Range/ Trafford (etc etc) residents that walk through there on the way to work everyday.
It is for all the people who visit the heritage of the area every day. It is for the canal boat users. It is for all the people who escape the city on a Sunny day. It is a place for any person to escape the shadows of the city with ease when ever they please.

The council can’t clear a Central Park-esque space in the middle of the city centre now but the council should enforce that a small percentage of each development should be left as green recreational space, the whole area from viaducts to the main roads has been designated as development space without any provisions for the residents.

With developments going in like the above I do not believe that the council cannot afford to invest in the people that have themselves invested in the city.

We do need a proper park.The penny still has not dropped with the council yet! Why? The current choice is grim.Why can the iron bridge in Castlefield not be landscaped?creating an elevated park,or the space around GMEX ? or whatever it is called these days could be made into a decent green open space.I was watching London on the TV other day and the beautiful parks they have and we have Landfill central,or Piccadilly gardens,to give it,it’s pathetic real name.When will MCC give us a decent park?

Speaking as a European- “quelle surprise!” Given the parties involved, this was always going to breeze through planning. Hopefully in a post Brexit world it won’t all get funded and we can have something better (in scale and design) than this piece of anywhere architecture, including some decent public space.

Most parts of the new development are closer to Hulme Park than to the Beetham Tower. It’s a great park, connected by a safe bridge link over the inner ring road for pedestrians and cyclists, with play areas, grass and mature trees, children’s play area, multi-use games area, football pitch, BMX and skateboard park. It was built in 1999. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/directory_record/89244/hulme_park/category/301/all_parks_playgrounds_and_open_spaces
Immediately to the south of that is the fantastic Z-Arts family and children’s facility http://www.z-arts.org
Both are available to all city centre residents and visitors. I’ve taken my visiting nephews to both for years.

CIS Tower anyone?

Hulme park wouldn’t be my first choice for a day out,unless you are happy to sit with drug dealers surrounded by overflowing bins.

This will be built, consolidating Manchester’s place as the Capital of the North, you don’t see 200m buildings in Leeds.

Sorry to hear that, Mr/Ms Elephant. That’s not my experience, using and/or walking through Hulme Park several times every week. Lots of great kids and families use the park – thought what we undoubtedly need is better weather! 😉 And Z- Arts is fantastic. I wish more people knew about both.

But Plot G; plot G looks like exactly what it is – an unplanned left over grass verge. It’s not a park and would not be the best or fairest use of public money buying this land for open space for the sole benefit of a few angry villagers. It’s unsightly and not really fit for purpose as decent open space.

The best solution might be to persuade the developers to provide permanent, high quality public landscaping on part of the site in lieu of a section 106 payment.

Public money is best used providing a proper open green space somewhere more accessible that the whole city centre community and visitors can enjoy.

Lesley is right, Hulme park is a fantastic facility, possibly underused and lower profile than it merits due to the fact that it’s currently regarded as peripheral and not really part of the city centre. The more the inner ring road is built out the more this perception will change and more people will see it as the fantastic resource that it is.

You’re so right. I’m in the Great Northern Tower, and can be in Hulme Park in roughly the same time as Printworks, Marks and Spencer, the Northern Quarter and the University area. But so many people have no idea that it – or Z-Arts – exist.

Manchester capital of the north …oh my word it’s embarrassing…stop it.

Sole benefit? hard to access? you find grass and trees to be unsightly? not fit for purpose? villagers?

You have obviously not read my post and even more obviously never actually stepped out to go down there.

The grass is a little long at the moment as the owners are now deliberately neglecting it to aid their application, but this area is very much loved by many.

Plot G is used every single day by all residents of all over Manchester and visitors from far and wide.

It is open green space 24/7 in the city centre.

It is used everyday by people exercising, walking dogs, reading, picnicing, BBQing, relaxing, meetings friends, sunbathing, community groups meet there regularly. There is also a very healthy variety of wildlife around.

You really should go down there, check it out.

Skyscrapers won’t make Manchester capital of the North, would take more than that….
The North will never acknowledge a capital, it’s the different centres that will make it interesting and attractive and bring prosperity.
Manchester’s at the centre of a large population that’ll keep it buzzing, but it’s appeal is limited because of it’s location, it can’t be London, or even Liverpool or Leeds. Great crack in Liverpool today as the Cunarders are in town again and the river is exhilarating.

LOVE this..Bring it on…

Grass and trees are beautiful. Just not a subscriber to the view that any old open space makes for a good park. There’s a lot of silly dogma spouted by people who think that every development plot should or could be turned into green space. Central Manchester does lack green open space but that’s not the way to go about it. We need to think and plan long term not give in to every call to green every development plot in the city.

Buying Plot G would be a hugely wasteful use of public money when we could put it towards funding improvements to existing or creating a new, purpose-designed, safe, genuinely accessible park in a more central area or as regards the southern end of the city, improving links to the excellent Hulme Park.

There are costs and benefits to every idea but in Castlefield I suspect the costs would vastly outweigh the benefits. Building on Plot G would provide better enclosure to the canal and car park to the rear, more eyes-on-the-street, more residents to support the area’s restaurants and would improve the character of the area by obscuring the hideous Castlegate and Slate Wharf developments.

Hulme Park is no Hyde Park or Central Park. Its a neighbourhood park and not a great one at that. Perhaps St Johns Quarter coudl build upon the pretty St John’s Grardens and include somthing there.

You cant get developers to carve out a few square metres of thier sites for green space. Thats not a park.

It needs a serious strategy led by MCC to get something that is worthy and helps to make Manchester an international city. At present Manchester is a thriving regional centre and needs mature from its teenage years into its next phase of growth and maturity.

I don’t think it’s sensible to just write of Hulme Park. It’s a good size and has great potential. The reason it lacks profile and is underused is because it lacks enclosure on two sides and the formidable (but not insurmountable) barrier that is the Mancuinan Way, thundering away alongside it. With more investment and better links it could be a great city centre park as development extends out towards the ring road. The same goes for Peel Park.

The next best opportunities to carve out a decent sized park lies in burying key artierial roads like Princess Parkway and Upper Brook Street and building a ribbon park on top.

The two best parks in Manchester are Fletcher Moss and Heaton,but are too far away from the centre,to serve the economy of the city centre,which is what people want,as in a pleasant place to sit to read or eat their lunch.The efforts around Chethams are promising,but still relatively small.Someone needs to think big.There are great swathes of empty land,especially to the East and North of the city centre.The Irk Valley could be stunning,with some proper investment.I have said on this site before, that the Cottonfields project could be extended once the Great Ancoats street retail park is bulldozed to the main road.Traditional open spaces are what we want with trees and a water.Open spaces with bogeys,whistling windmills,fountains which do not work, modern art and dreary concrete,do not work in our climate.They are erecting a statue to Emmeline Pankhurst shortly,so why not completely reclaim Piccadilly Gardens with this as the focal point.Pankhurst Lawns?

good idea Elephant Pankhurst Lawns / Gardens

Buile Hill park is a very grand park.I also think Whitworth is a great park,but sadly it is surrounded by scruffy houses and littered streets.The Hinterland of a park is equally important.