‘£9million spent for a sea of jet black tarmac’
COUNCIL UNDER FIRE AFTER UTILITIES GLITCH SPOILS PLANS FOR TREE-LINED BOULEVARD
MANCHESTER Council has been accused of bungling plans to turn Great Ancoats Street into a ‘tree-lined boulevard’ after contractors uncovered a utilities glitch.
The £9.1million project, expected to take a year to complete, is currently under way on one of Manchester city centre’s busiest roads.
Council bosses said the aim is to ‘improve the look and feel of the area for pedestrians’ and provide a more natural link between the city centre and the rapidly-expanding Ancoats and New Islington neighbourhoods.
It includes installing new crossing facilities, ‘modern’ road surfacing to reduce noise and, crucially, more than 70 trees down the central reservation.
Unveiling an artist’s impression last summer, the council described the final vision as a ‘European-style boulevard.’ But a photo circulated widely on social media in the last few days suggested the space where the trees are supposed to be planted is covered in tarmac.
Resident Chris Wilkinson posted an image on Twitter of the current state of the scheme as he was crossing the road.
“Hi Manchester City Council I can’t wait to see all the trees go in on GAS, but the contractors have put tarmac where they’re supposed to be going. What’s the plan for planting them?” he wrote. Jon-Connor Lyons, Labour councillor for the Piccadilly ward, responded by confirming that he had already raised the issue with contractors.
It appears a number of trees won’t be able to be planted in their intended location due to ‘unmapped utilities’ that have been discovered underneath.
Labour councillors - conscious that the scheme has already proved controversial - want as many trees to be put on Great Ancoats
Street as possible, or to be found new locations close by.
It is understood putting trees in planters instead is not seen as an option as they take a lot of maintenance and generally last only 10 years.
The council hopes the 70 trees it is buying will last around 100 years.
In a statement, Councillor Angeliki Stogia, Executive Member for Environment, Planning and Transport, said: “Locations for 57 of the trees have already been confirmed along Great Ancoats Street itself and we’re currently conducting trial excavations in order to identify suitable new sites for nine of the remaining trees within the boundaries of the project. New locations will also be found for the final four trees as soon as possible.
“We are fully committed to planting the vast majority of the 70 trees along Great Ancoats Street and to finding sympathetic locations in the immediate vicinity for the small number which will need to be relocated.”
It remains unclear exactly which parts of the central reservation will be affected, but the stretch at the junction of Oldham Street towards Lever Street appears to be one.
The problem provoked fresh criticism of the authority’s overall handling of the Great Ancoats Street scheme.
Chris Buckley tweeted: “I’ve been following the developments on GAS almost every day for the past 12-18 months. Seriously, without trees, this is going to be huge disappointment.”
Nick Galpin added: “So what happened to the European boulevard? We look across at Paris and see the massive uptake in cycling due to the miles, well kilometres I guess, of protected infrastructure and can only shed a Gallic tear for what could have been. £9m for a sea of jet black tarmac.”
The roadworks are already causing heavy traffic, especially in the evenings, with the situation likely to get worse as more workers return in September.
The Great Ancoats Street scheme has proved controversial from the start, with campaigners claiming a lack of consultation with residents and other stakeholders such as cycling groups over the design.