10,000 HOMES TO BE BUILT IN NORTH OF CITY
‘NORTHERN GATEWAY’ TO START WITH 700 FLATS AT ANGEL MEADOW
Manchester council wants to fill in a huge swathe of land around Rochdale Road and the River Irk
A DECADE-long plan to completely transform north Manchester with thousands of new homes is about to get off the ground – starting with hundreds of apartments around Angel Meadow.
Manchester council wants to fill in a huge swathe of land around Rochdale Road and along the River Irk, stretching from the city centre fringe and the Green Quarter up to Collyhurst, creating a series of brand new neighbourhoods.
It believes the huge area – which is littered with former industrial sites – is the ‘single largest opportunity’ for new housing in the city and has earmarked it for up to 10,000 homes over the next 10 to 15 years, well over a third of that planned for Manchester as a whole.
Now its vision, known as the Northern Gateway, is taking a step closer to reality with plans imminent for 700 apartments on the edge of historic park Angel Meadow.
According to a report going before council bosses tomorrow, a planning application for that development – which it believes is a ‘quick win’ within a vast area that is otherwise more complicated to develop is due in the next few weeks.
Building work could start by the end of the year.
While the report does not detail which plots will come under the scope of the application, it is likely to cover four sites identified as suitable for development by the council 18 months ago in its local masterplan for the neighbourhood.
That includes three surface car parks – two on Aspin Lane and one on Old Mount Street – and a fourth site on land bordering the north-eastern corner of the park at Gould Street. Development around Angel Meadow will be carried out by the Co-Op and its partner Far East Consortium International, which signed up to the project last year. The move is just phase one in a vast masterplan drawn up by Manchester council for sites stretching up to Collyhurst intended to create ‘a series of distinctive and interconnected communities on the northern edge of the city centre.’
Officials are in the final stages of signing up an investor for the vision as a whole – which takes in nearly 300 acres of land it admits has seen ‘very little investment’ in recent decades. That includes largely-undeveloped space along the River Irk, much of it formerly industrial and bordered by the railway line to the south and Red Bank and Collingham Street to the north.
The council’s local masterplan for that area, agreed in summer 2015, shows new apartments rising up above the disused viaduct on Red Bank opposite the Green Quarter.
A series of homes, including ‘urban townhouses,’ would be clustered around courtyards stretching up the valley towards Collyhurst, with parkland left for public use along the river.
The Northern Gateway vision also takes in the New Cross area between Rochdale Road and Oldham Road, much of which is vacant, and improvements to Collyhurst itself.
Outdated maisonettes along Rochdale Road – around Overbrook Avenue, Picard Close and Needwood Close – have already been demolished in preparation for new housing, while further improvements are planned for the south Collyhurst and Collyhurst village estates and Collyhurst park, including a new playground.
The town hall also has a bid in to government for cash to help build 110 new council houses in Collyhurst, as well as homes for private rent and sale.