Manchester Northern Arc - Report part two

Image: Liz Goldsby, GMCA speaking at Future Cities Forum at Manchester Town Hall (second from right, facing)

In the first part of our 'Northern Arc' report, we talked about how increased investment into a modern railway in the North of England, would drive international trade and help attract and retain talent. The conversation was held at Manchester Town Hall as part of our industrial cities and new districts series.

Transport for Greater Manchester / Greater Manchester Combined Authority's Liz Goldsby (who is the Lead for HS2 / Northern Powerhouse Rail), agreed with Henri Murison's assertion that connectivity is key to growth and took the conversation further:

'It begins with rail schemes - but also local connectivity is as important as intercity connectivity. You need a carefully worked out plan and that means improving services with local control that devolution brings. It means having a better service for people and an attractive proposition so that people want to stay in the area. You need different layers of bus and rail integration but avoid the conversation of do we need big infrastructure or local transport?

'The North was bitterly disappointed around the decision to shelve HS2, although we were concerned about specific proposals that would have come with it. The connectivity was seen as very important but we haven't just sat by. We are looking at improving transport now between Birmingham and Manchester using a private consortium. HS2 has gone but we need to move forward. We need to deliver transport differently and better using additional funding and through a railway board which involves among others, including Manchester Airport and Peel Ports.

'The idea of a Northern Arc would drive huge economic assets across the region. We have tremendous assets in sports, science, innovation and the arts, but it needs transport growth to ensure the benefits. East West Rail is providing this down south. We need a core scheme but we need to look beyond that and think about the railway differently. How can we deliver it that brings forth growth opportunities? The key issue around HS2 was that it involved a surface station but what we really needed was an underground one. This is so that it can give way to space - some 16 hectares in east Manchester for example - for growth.'

Above: tram station at night, St Peter's Square with Manchester Town Hall behind - where Future Cities Forum's discussions took place

The current transport system in Manchester was described as definitely second-rate by Jim Budd of SCP Transport:

'This means that Manchester could not be described as European. I have lived in Europe with better transport. The problem with developing transport is how long it takes to get through planning. I work with the GMCA but I don't think we should be car free. We have beautiful countryside here and we need a car to get out into it. I agree that we do need an underground railway. Canary Wharf in London only got started with a promise to create better connectivity and this is essential if you are going to retain talent. A hundred years ago in Manchester we had a thousand trams in the city.

'The way to get round the planning system is to invest in skills training and on a political level to get the officers to sign up to this strategy. I really do not agree with the system to stop driving though, people will just go and live and work elsewhere.'

Cllr Gavin White, Executive Member for Housing and Development at Manchester City Council commented:

'We are not anti-car in the city and I think the recent announcement from the UK government was a response to tariffs and protecting the car industry. The green agenda here is now ensuring that all houses are built with EV charging points. It is also not a bad thing to invest in roads. This investment is for cyclists and pedestrians too and so that bus routes can function.'

Above: CGI from LDA Design of the St Petersfield, Ashton, Manchester project, showing transformed streetscape

LDA Design's Director Mark Graham reacted by suggesting that policy was getting things right and wrong at the same time in the city.

'Transport and growth in Manchester is good but we also need to work harder towards cycling and walking measures. This all filters out into town centres outside the city. We need to get those town centres around the M60 to work. The new towns funding is becoming a bit of a distracting target with all the bidding for money that has to go on. It is more important that we deliver successful places.

'At Ashton we have a great plan in place and a strong focus around St Petersfield with a data centre at the heart of it. These are measures that harness town centre growth. Ashton is different to Stockport and we need to draw on the unique character of each place and use partnership to make it work.

LDA Design states:

'St Petersfield is set to become a desirable location for the innovation, design and tech sector, bringing quality jobs into the area. The masterplan will make St Petersfield a more connected part of the town through a mix of welcoming new public spaces, revitalised streets and uses.

'The site is already home to the Victorian Grade II* listed Ashton Old Baths, now a digital incubator centre and co-working space, and the vision seeks to capitalise on this success to catalyse further growth. It will create a framework for wider regeneration and investment and bring coherence to previous ad hoc development. The plan provides scope for new homes, 193,000 sq ft of commercial space and a hotel.

'Designated as an employment area, St Petersfield will benefit from a Dark Fibre network ensuring it has amongst the best digital connectivity in the country. It forms part of a new Mayoral Development Zone in Ashton, which also encompasses Ashton Moss West where LDA Design is shaping plans for a new centre for advanced manufacturing.'

Mark also gave his vision for one of the most historic streets in Manchester that LDA Design has been working on to create a sustainable transport system as well as preserve the city's heritage:

'On Deansgate as an improvement street project in Manchester, we have been working on sustainable transport and challenges of space, enabling growth around it. We want cyclists to ride more easily through it and at the moment there are huge amounts of people and cars. Our project has been an early vision for the council to consider and we have now taken a step back so that there can be more thinking to get the balance right. We need to understand where we are heading because this could be the best street in Europe.'

Above: Deansgate - by Spinningfields in April 2025

LDA has described the project:

'Changes to Deansgate will form part of the city council’s transport strategy, which aims to make Manchester’s streets “welcoming, green and safe spaces for all people”, creating thriving places that support local communities.

'Named after the lost river Dene, Deansgate dates to Roman times. It is home to city landmarks including Manchester Cathedral, John Rylands Library, the Beetham Tower and Kendals department store, now a House of Fraser and the oldest department store in the country.

'Once heavily trafficked, parts of Deansgate were closed to cars during lockdown and have since only reopened to buses, taxis, and deliveries between 6-8am, whilst other parts are still more open to traffic. Narrow pavements, degraded public realm and street clutter help make it a place to hurry along rather than a destination.'

Image: Deansgate, Manchester, courtesy of LDA Design.

How can the planning of new districts around Manchester ensure a high-quality of living for residents and those moving to the area?

Red Bank has been planned as a new district for Greater Manchester and Kevin Logan, Director and Urban Designer at MacCreanor Lavington, suggested that the important choice was made to retrofit places for sustainable living:

'I am interested in cities that should be liveable and regenerative and partnership working in this is fundamental. I am anti-place making. We are making places at Red Bank but we are retrofitting and not projecting onto it. Red Bank has everything that Manchester doesn't have. Manchester could be a global city not just a European city but in Red Bank we are working with natural features not against them. So we are working with a river that floods and there is topography to consider as well as wildness in the landscape. We want to retain the landscape and deliver a new park, keeping fifty per cent of open space. The river will be re-naturalised. We want streets not roads, because we want people to live in that landscape while we urbanise the valley.'

MacCreanor Lavington states:

'We worked together with Copenhagen practice, Schulze + Grassov on the Red Bank masterplan in Manchester for Far East Consortium (FEC). It combines the wilderness of the riverside park setting and the metropolitan urbanity of Central Manchester. Set within this wilderness, social, community and commercial infrastructure will support a thriving residential neighbourhood to foster an equitable, active, local, and resilient urban dwelling. It is one of the first seven neighbourhoods being  regenerated  as part of the £4 billion Victoria North project, which is one of the largest in the UK and expected to build 15,000 new houses over the next decade.

'Collectively, we developed the idea of ‘Wild Urbanism’, uniting the wilderness of the re-naturalised post-industrial landscape with the urbanity of the metropolitan world directly adjoining it. Merging nature and city life , it will offer the naturalised River Irk, the extended existing St Catherine’s Wood and a myriad of other interconnected green spaces to Mancunians. Cafes, restaurants, shops, community spaces and homes will be set among the nature to bring a dose of urbanity to the wilderness.'

Above: landscape at Redbank, Manchester looking towards the city centre, upper left - courtesy of Manchester City Council

Kevin continued:

'With a commitment to 50% open space, we had a fanciful notion of retaining all the trees but these have to go because of contamination though there will be re-planting. There will be a new park and an extensive network of streets, because it will be for citizens - people - not cars. We want to take the wildness and thread it into the city to draw the urbanity of the city out into the landscape.

'By using nature-based solutions it's a cost neutral approach compared to drainage pipes which are often concrete so carbon intensive. If you look at that landscape at Redbank it's working infrastructure, working as a drainage system. There's been some great work done on cost-neutral landscaping and infrastructure, in Sheffield for example. You can pay the same amount on conventional drainage pipe and sewage system infrastructure as you would on landscaping of this quality.

It's a carbon sequestering landscape that drives biodiversity. Your maintenance is cost neutral and there are added benefits.

'How do you differentiate a product both for the people who will live there and for the developers -when there is a lot of competing product in the city and region? That landscape is very hardworking, it's necessary and it's cost neutral.

Above: CGI from MacCreanor Lavington of development at Redbank - Victoria North for FEC and Manchester City Council

To follow on, Ged Couser, Principal at BDP and Head of the Manchester Studio, added his comments on the car - bus - bike debate and described the ground-breaking sponge park concept of the West Gorton community park project:

'Well I sold my car two years ago, I now get the bus to work, and it's been pretty transformational - I make new friends everyday! I think the Bee network has helped the city grow. I am a Mancunian, the city needs more investment and I believe Ian's plan about densification is the right way to approach the future with the development of all these brownfield sites. Now the city is a different place to live from the 1990s when we had only 500 or so people living in the centre, mostly care-takers. The city will run out of space pretty soon, and it needs to ensure surrounding towns are well connected.

'A few years ago we took on a project at West Gorton for a community park, and we did the public consultation very responsibly, which is important for all of us working in the field of design and architecture. We came up with the idea of calling it a' sponge park', based on a sustainable drainage approach. It pushed the boundaries on sustainable design and provides an amenity for a deprived part of the city.'

BDP describes the project:

'West Gorton Community Park is a new, sustainable green space for the local community that uses an interconnected series of swales, rain gardens and bio-attenuation features to help prevent flooding and reduce the impact of climate change in Manchester.

'Unlike a typical park, West Gorton Community Park has been specifically designed to manage the flow of rainwater into a drainage system and nature-based solutions have been implemented to combat the effects of climate change.

'Paths and hard surfaces have been replaced with permeable paving to allow rainwater to percolate through to the ground. Infiltration ponds will soak up water and any remaining will flow into sunken rain gardens, which have been planted with a range of biodiverse vegetation to mimic the area’s natural environment. During heavy storms, water that cannot be absorbed by soil and vegetation will be captured through a series of “v” shaped channels and used to water the trees and plants.'

Image below: West Gorton Community Park - courtesy of BDP