Public consultation has opened around proposals for a new city centre park space, delivered by Manchester City Council.
The consultation, opened on Tuesday (26 August), will gather feedback from local residents, businesses and other stakeholders to help guide proposals for the new government digital campus, delivered by the Government Property Agency (GPA).
The land was previously home to Manchester’s former Central Retail Park, which stood since the 1980s until it was demolished after Manchester council bought the space in 2017,
The purchase was later described as the largest ever land purchase in the city centre, according to Manchester Evening News.
The council agreed an updated Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) for the land in March 2023 that set out the development principles for the site, to create:
- Low carbon commercial office space
- High-quality accessible green space
The updated framework aims to support continued economic growth in this part of Manchester’s city centre.
The GPA exchanged contracts to acquire five acres of the former Central Retail Park in Ancoats from the city council in May for the new government digital campus.
The office complex seeks to bring together around 7,000 civil servants across several departments.
The campus also aims to provided more than £300 million in economic benefits for Greater Manchester during the construction, along with Circa 6,000 new construction
jobs in Greater Manchester, with 2,000 of these in the local area.
Meanwhile, the new park is being designed in collaboration with landscape architects Planit-IE and will also open up access to the existing Cotton Field Park and Ancoats Marina.
Detailed design work will continue following consultation to deliver a park space comparable in size to Ancoats Green, which is also currently undergoing redevelopment works.
Councillor Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “We are beginning to see the potential of this site unlocked and the plans being developed by the council and the GPA meet the ambitions we have for this important site
“The new park will help meet demand for high-quality green space in the city centre and will complement other green investment in this neighbourhood.
“As ever, consultation is the opportunity for our residents to give us feedback on the emerging proposals and help guide this investment that will benefit Mancunians for years to come.”
Mark Bourgeois, interim CEO at the GPA, said: “We are pleased to be working collaboratively with Manchester City Council on these plans to regenerate this important area of Manchester and we look forward to the input from city residents and businesses to help us deliver the optimum proposal.
“This proposed development, builds on the work the Council and the GPA undertook last year in putting in place an updated Strategic Regeneration Framework, and the shared ambition to regenerate the Ancoats former retail site, creating employment and wider business opportunities, supported by the digital campus.”
The consultation will end on September 23, 2024, following which the proposals will be finalised and separate planning applications submitted later this year.
To find out more about the proposals and feedback online, click here.
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