Manchester’s Northern Gateway project to be considered tomorrow

A detailed vision for the Northern Gateway project, which is one of the largest residential-led regeneration projects in the UK, will be considered by the Manchester City Council Executive for the first time this Wednesday (July 25).

The project is a joint venture between Manchester City Council and the Far Eastern Consortium (FEC) and if passed, 15,000 new homes will be built on the site over the next 20 years with at least 3,000 being affordable across a range of tenures.

The scheme hopes to ‘bring to life’ the Irk River Valley and connect seven new and emerging neighbourhoods through ‘high quality open green spaces and public squares.’

The green space will stretch from Angel Meadow through to Collyhurst while ‘celebrating the existing architectural features of the valley,’ including Manchester’s Victorian railway arches.

The draft Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) sets out eight clear core objectives for the regeneration programme and will be a template for development planning over the next decade.

Consultation on the draft SRF is due to begin during August when local residents, businesses and landowners will be asked for their ideas for the area and for their views on the current plans before a final framework is developed later in the year.

Cllr Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: ‘The draft framework gives us a real feel of how these exciting plans are coming together and will help us inform the tone of specific plans for the Northern Gateway over the next 10 to 15 years.

‘We will be listening to and working with existing communities.  It’s important that as one of the largest residential-led developments the UK has ever seen, the Northern Gateway maintains its authentic Manchester roots. We will be beginning a major consultation in the coming months to find out what the public think – and we want to know, have we got this right and is there anything we’ve missed?

‘The Northern Gateway is a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform the Irk Valley through the unique City Park, and we think deliver a template of how city living can be transformed to improve lifestyles and a collective sense of place.’