St Michael’s consultation draws to a close
Tomorrow is the last day for people to submit comments to Manchester City Council in response to the planning application for the 31-storey and 21-storey towers proposed by the St Michael’s Partnership at Bootle Street.
The application, submitted in January, seeks permission for a 201-bedroom five-star hotel, 159 apartments, 138,000 sq ft of offices and 49,000 sq ft of retail and leisure across 15 units, including two new sky bars and restaurants. There are also three areas of public realm, and a new building for the Manchester Reform Synagogue.
Manchester City Council is development partner for the St Michael’s scheme, alongside former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, and developer Brendan Flood. Ken Shuttleworth’s Make is the architect.
Protests against the project have gathered momentum since the planning application was submitted in January. Historic England declared its opposition earlier this month, and described the scheme as “aggressive” and set to cause “substantial harm”.
The development site is in an historic area close to Albert Square and Manchester Town Hall.
A petition set up by former English Cities Fund chief executive and nearby resident Lesley Chalmers against the development has gained 3,750 signatures.
Objectors are pressing for communities secretary Sajid Javid to call in the application for consideration before it reaches the Manchester City Council planning committee, expected in April.
View the planning application here http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=OHHY99BCI2L00
NOT these & NOT there !!
By Schwyz
All support would be greatly appreciated.
Petition and next steps re call-in requests here: bit.ly/2ljw58v
Big thanks!
Lesley
By Lesley
now if these were glass they would reflect the town hall in all its glory
By MCC
I want change! I don’t want change! The cries of bored and self interested parties whilst the world goes on and 90% of the population couldn’t give a monkeys either way.
By Yoda's Twin Brother
Awful buildings that will ruin and overshadow the beautiful Albert Square
By Phil George
There are many beautiful traditional buildings in Manchester, please don’t let these be over shadowed modern trendy huge monstrosities.
By Jo Moran
I’d be happy for Manchester to be covered in ‘trendy’ designs… but these are not!
By Rooney
Only one side of Albert Square is beautiful.The other side looks like Luton.
By Elephant
These towers are far too near and will detract from the Town Hall and Albert Square, which evoke Manchester’s historic grandeur and world class importance. We need buildings sited where they will be part of a well designed cityscape. This would not be the case with these towers at this location.
By E M Pope
Historic grandeur?! Come off it. St Peters Square and the Town Hall are nice, but there isn’t otherwise a whole lot of ‘gradeur’ in Manchester city centre – its heritage is primarily industrial not commercial.
These towers are awful though. I don’t say the above to knock Manchester – it shouldn’t be harking back to its grimy past and an invented ‘heydey’ – Manchester’s heyday is now. Something attractive and lasting should be built here.
By Rooney
I don’t know how anyone can say Town Hall is just nice. It’s one of the best Victorian neo-gothic buildings around.
By MB
Wouldn’t dispute whatever superlative you wish to apply to the town hall – my point was indeed to acknowledge its aesthetic, alongside the library (and The Midland), but to point out the wider context of the city centre is hardly one of ‘grandeur’.
My wider point was that, THIS is the age future generations will refer to as Manchester’s heyday. Developments such as this one should reflect that, and we should be wary of harking back to a previous ‘golden era’ that didn’t really exist.
By Rooney
Completely agree with E M Pope here. This is Manchester’s historic core and some of the great, monumental civil and commercial buildings from its Victorian and Edwardian heyday when it was the ‘shock city’ of the age need be protected. Manchester is one of our great cities, a global city, a great trading city and the centre of numerous social and scientific innovations.
We are only just getting to the stage where the last empty plots within the inner ring round are being regenerated so we are a long way from our industrial and commercial heyday. New development should be encouraged but should be cognisant of the city’s precious heritage.
By Quilt