Planning permission for “developing” Birley Fields is likely to be sought before the year ends. This means paving over nearly all our local green space and effectively dividing Hulme in 2 for the campus. It means years of noise and disruption and if you thought we have traffic problems now… Many of the buildings are not academic but residential.
Part of the sales pitch has always been that the campus would have cutting edge green credentials.
Certainly this will bring some positives, but it is still an optional add-on in finance terms, and MMU have had big money worries lately.
There’s a wide range of opinion on the subject but consultation that was carried out was quite scant and plans have changed quite a bit due to those money issues. Most people in Hulme dont seem to know the scale of what is about to hit them.
Stop Press: PUBLIC MEETING ON THE MMU DEVELOPMENT OF BIRLEY FIELDS The Yard Theatre, Thursday October 28th, 7pm till 9pm
