Road closures ‘take the mickey...’
DEVELOPERS BLASTED FOR TURNING CITY CENTRE INTO ‘PERMANENT BUILDING SITE’:
PROPERTY developers have been accused of ‘taking the mickey’ by closing city centre roads for years on end – turning it ‘into a permanent building site.’
Councillors are seeking legal advice to see if firms can be forced to reopen streets they have indefinitely stopped up while flats are being built, after being inundated with complaints from residents.
One said developers were ‘riding roughshod’ over the surrounding communities as it emerged another 60 major building schemes are due to come online in the city centre in the next year.
Traffic in the city centre has been a cause of frustration among councillors for months and last week they met in private with highways officers to air their concerns.
In the public meeting of the neighbourhoods committee a few days later, members made clear they were still annoyed about the role developers have in the gridlock.
Deansgate councillor William Jeavons said the impact of their construction traffic and road closures was being felt right across the city centre. “I could list a whole number of streets – Lower Byrom Street, Liverpool Road, Quay Street, New Quay Street, Mirabel Street, Water Street, River Street,” he said. “They are all examples in the last two months where we have had complaints from local residents about the implementation of traffic changes that have been put in place and we have had to take up as pieces of casework to have some sort of remedial action put against them.” While highways officers were good at resolving complaints when they were raised, he said, there should be more restrictions put on developers earlier on, through the planning process. “I believe many of the developers just basically – I’m trying to think of the word that isn’t swearing – take the mickey a bit out of what they do round site,” he said. “I’m not going to name them individually, but many of the ones on the streets I’ve just talked about have got the same type of developer on them and they basically push their luck continually and I find that incredibly disappointing. “It’s disingenuous to the people that live in this city and to the people that live locally and I find it completely
unacceptable because that, to my mind, is them just riding roughshod over the local community and that’s absolutely unacceptable.”
More than 60 other major developments are in the pipeline, he added, pointing out the associated water and electricity works would also have ‘mass impact.’
Responding, director of highways Steve Robinson said officers have regular meetings with other local authorities, utilities companies and other firms, but agreed ‘there is room for improvement.’
“Developers push their luck in every regard, don’t they and not providing facilities, taking too long, is just one of those areas,” he said.
Highways officers would meet with the councillors to discuss the individual streets mentioned, he said.
Miles Platting and Newton Heath councillor John Flanagan said the problem should be sorted out early on, through the planning process, however.
“I’m absolutely worried that the city can’t cope with all those kicking off next year,” he said of 68 new developments in the immediate pipeline.
He said officers had told him privately that there was ‘no restriction’ on how long some of the developers could keep roads closed once they had paid a one-off £4,000.
Pointing to ongoing lane closures on Albion Way – near Home – as another example, he asked that the city solicitor now be consulted on what the council could do to stop indefinite road disruption.
“We want the development, but we don’t want it to become a permanent building site and we want some incentive that at least these contractors, developers, move off as quickly as possible,” he added.