Updated plans for controversial Ryebank Fields homes

Plans to redevelop a 10-acre patch of land next to Longford Park on the Manchester/Trafford border have caused tension locally.

Developer Step Places, housing association Southway, and landowner Manchester Metropolitan University lodged plans for the redevelopment of Ryebank Fields more than a year ago.

Designed by 5plus Architects, these plans featured 120 two-, three-, and four-bed apartments and townhouses for a variety of end users. 52 would be sold on the open market with another 42 earmarked as age-friendly, social rent properties.

Eight homes for young adults with autism and 18 co-housing units are also proposed.

In the fourteen months since the submission of plans, a protest planning application has been submitted by the Save Ryebank Fields campaign group. This group opposes development on the site and proposes retaining it as a community woodland.

Step Places, Southway, and MMU have submitted a series of tweaks to the layout of their proposals, aimed at addressing drainage and flood mitigation issues.

Harinder Dhaliwal, managing director at Step Places, said: “Step Places is genuinely proud of what we’re proposing at Ryebank.

“We are creating a place that is thoughtful, sustainable, and which delivers much-needed affordable homes that will support independent living in a community people want to stay in.

He added: “We understand how important Ryebank is to the community. That’s why we’re cleaning up the unsafe ground conditions, improving connectivity with Longford Park, and ensuring at least a third of the site becomes safe, public open spaces for everyone to enjoy”.

There has been vocal opposition to the scheme ever since Manchester Metropolitan University announced its intention to sell off Ryebank Fields in 2019.

This is likely to ramp up as the development works its way through the planning process and towards committee.

Since 2020, the site has been used sporadically as a base by protestors, including members of environmental group Extinction Rebellion.

Campaign group Save Ryebank Fields claims that the land is unfit for redevelopment and that MMU does not have a “moral right to benefit financially from the proposed housing development”.

To learn more about the application, search for reference number 142223/FO/2025 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.