PLACE EVENT | M60 Towns Development Conference

Join Place North West, Barton Willmore and Rochdale Development Agency to explore the development prospects of M60 Towns at this half-day event on Thursday 21 April at the Village Hotel, Ashton Moss.

Themes on the day will include challenges for animating town centres, housing and the green belt debate, employment land allocation, development viability and transport infrastructure.

There will be a mixture of presentations and panel discussion.

Confirmed on the speaker line-up so far are:

Nick Johnson, head honcho at Market Operations, Altrincham Markets, on the extraordinary turnaround of the market under his tutelage and how other towns might follow suit

Dan Mitchell, partner and head of the Manchester office, Barton Willmore, setting out the lessons learned from GM towns in the past decade and how they are positioning themselves for the current development cycle

Ade Alao, head of investment and development at Tameside Council, Executive Leader, currently in the process of releasing 36 hectares of land in its ownership for new housing development in the borough

Shelagh McNerney, head of development, Salford City Council, on challenges and opportunities in the city

Roger Frith, head of strategic regeneration and development, Oldham Council

John Searle, chief executive of Rochdale Development Agency, catalyst in Kingsway business park with Wilson Bowden and the retail-led redevelopment of the town centre with Genr8

Lindsay Humblet, partner in landscape architecture, at Planit-IE, with lessons from town centre work in Altrincham as well as outside the M60 in Chorley and Blackburn

John Sullivan, director, Cinema Next, advising on major retail and leisure developments in Oldham, Stockport, and Bolton, as well as Preston and Prescot among others

David Smith-Milne, chief executive, PlaceFirst, developer of Ashton Old Baths and specialist in quality family homes for private rent

Nicola Kane, transport strategy manager and Rod Fawcett, transport policy manager at Transport for Greater Manchester on investment strategy, connectivity ideas and the 2040 vision

Tickets for the event are priced at £65+VAT and include breakfast and lunch. The event is due to start at 8am for an 8.30am beginning to formal proceedings and wrapping up around 12midday with lunch and networking.

M60 Towns is sponsored by Barton Willmore.

There is extensive free parking at Village, the Hotel Club, Ashton-under-Lyne. For public transport, the venue is a short walk from Ashton West Metrolink stop, travelling on the Ashton-under-Lyne route, taking around 30 minutes from Manchester city centre. Click here to register