Town hall car park plan hit by ‘illegal air quality’
AIR quality around a former shopping centre in Ancoats is at illegal levels, it has emerged, sparking fresh arguments over council plans to build a huge new car park in its place.
The 10.5-acre site on Great Ancoats Street, bought by the council in 2017, remains vacant after derelict shops were demolished earlier this year.
Earlier this summer, a change-ofuse planning application was quietly submitted to turn the site into a 440-space ‘temporary’ car park.
The council sees it as a way of raising revenue while the long-term future of the site is decided.
The original application was for a five-year use although this has now been reduced to two years.
In the latest update of the Eastlands Regeneration Framework, the council said it ultimately wants to build 500,000sq ft of new office space targeted at the technology, media and telecomms sector.
Bosses want to bring forward a scheme ‘as quickly as possible.’
But in the meantime, the plans for the car park have sparked fierce criticism from a number of groups which say it does not fit with the council’s strategy for combating climate change and improving air quality. The Trees Not Cars campaign is calling for a community green space to be installed instead.
Almost 10,000 people have now signed their petition.
Critics believe the proposed car park will further damage air quality in the area – Manchester currently has some of the worst rates of childhood asthma and air pollution in Europe.
Now Manchester council has submitted an air quality assessment report to evaluate the potential impact.
It concludes that overall the car park would have no ‘significant’ effect compared with historical data.
However, the report reveals that levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) pollution in the area have been well above the legal limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre for some time.
At 71 Great Ancoats Street, at the junction with Jersey Street, the level of NO2 was 45.9 micrograms in 2015, 51.2 in 2016, 50.9 in 2017 and 46.1 in 2018.
The figures were even higher at 9 Newton Street, falling from 55.9 micrograms in 2015 to 45.9 in 2018, and at 88 Angel Street from 52.2 micrograms in 2015 to 45.3 in 2018. In its assessment of the impact of a car park, the council report compared the potential number of vehicle trips it would generate with the number generated during the site’s previous use as a retail park. According to the modelling, the former shopping centre generated 1,727 more car trips when it was occupied by four units in 2015 and 2016, than the proposed car park. In 2017 and 2018, when only two units were occupied, the shopping centre generated 269 fewer journeys than the proposed car park. The report concludes that the exhaust emissions associated with the car park ‘are likely to replace trips associated with the previous retail units on the site, as well as off-set trips to other car parks to the north of the city centre.’ Reacting to the report, critics said the council report’s decision to compare the potential car park with the site’s historic use for retail as ‘a disappointingly cynical perspective.’ Nick Hubble, from Walk Ride Greater Manchester, said: “In its air-quality assessment, the council is basically arguing that because air pollution is already as bad as it is – with NO2 levels illegally high – we may as well generate a few thousand more vehicle movements a day on the site of the old retail park.
“This a disappointingly cynical perspective. Let’s not forget that this summer the council declared a climate emergency, stating that ‘business as usual’ was not an option and that we need to act with deeds not words.”
Opposition party the Lib Dems are supporting the Trees Not Cars petition and believe the air quality report underestimates the potential impact of the proposed car park.
Alan Good, Lib Dem candidate in Ancoats and Beswick, said: “This unsustainable development has been resoundingly rejected by local residents and parents.
“The council should stop pushing for more and more car park spaces, and unambiguously back the residents of Ancoats in their proposals for green space as part of a proactive community response to the Climate Emergency.”
A Manchester council spokesperson said: “The site is currently costing the council tax payer money and this will reduce that cost while we go through the planning and procurement process.”
They added: “The council is currently master planning the site with mixed-use commercial and residential uses, but also a high-quality link to Cotton Field Park, which lies immediately to the rear of the site.”