Save our green space!

What is happening?

The council is planning on changing the Princess Road and Medlock Street roundabout. The plan will see the subways removed and the roundabout reconfigured into branching roads. The plan also includes provisions to change cycling and walking routes. We have been told that clearing work will begin at the end of July with proper works starting in September. So far residents have not had any information or consultation about the plans.

You can see the maps of the plans here.

How will it impact the Redbricks?

Hugely. While we aren’t opposed to the idea of the roundabout changing, the current plans will have a hugely detrimental impact on the estate.

The main issues are:

Loss of the community garden at the back of the Rockdove flats. There is currently a green space at the back of the Rockdove flats which provides an important buffer between the block and the roundabout. In the plans this garden will be ripped out and paved over, with public paths running right by people’s houses. In addition to all the people currently going via the subways, this new public path will direct everyone who crosses under the Mancunian Way round past these flats. We are really concerned about the loss of this important buffer from the noise and pollution. Residents at the end of the block already have to put up with a lot of anti-social behaviour (such as students making noise late at night) and this will spread to all the residents in these blocks.

This space is co-managed by residents of the Redbricks who have spent countless hours and thousands of pounds turning it into a quiet oasis. The space has bats, birds and other amazing wildlife.

We want the council to redirect the path so it doesn’t run through this space.

Felling of trees. The current plans will see 24 trees cut down. We already have some of the worst air pollution in Manchester so it’s really important we keep these trees to help protect against this .

Site entrance on Clarendon St. The plan is for the site entrance to be in the same spot as when the Aaben was developed, but with more heavy machinery. This will mean an increase in cars and noise on the estate, causing extra disruption to those at the end of Rockdove who will also be losing their green space.

Increased noise and dust during the works. We’ve already suffered with huge amounts of dust from the building of the Aaben (and no window cleaning even though we were promised) and this building work will be the same if not more. On top of this will be increased noise pollution from the works such as drilling.

Increased pollution as there are no plans for green screening. We’ve been campaigning for green screening to help reduce pollution during the works (and in the long term) but we’ve still had no confirmation that this will happen, without this there will probably be an increase in pollution in an already highly polluted estate.

Why has no one told us about this?

We’re not really sure (but probably because we’d object)

Residents and councillors weren’t told anything about the plans, until we accidently came across them. We’ve been working alongside our councillors to try and find out more but we’ve been struggling.

At no stage have we been offered a chance to formally object to any of the plans. We weren’t consulted about the plans before they were decided. There will be 2 consultation events about the scheme but they will be just before work begins.

These events will be:

Thursday 11 July, 4.30– 7.30pm at Z-Arts (Brayshaw Room), 335 Stretford Rd, M15 5ZA

Tuesday 23 July, 4.30–7.30pm at Z-Arts (Rylands Room), 335 Stretford Rd, M15 5ZA

What can I do to help?

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