Keeping it BREEAM

 Manchester Metropolitan University's (MMU) Birley Fields campus is nearly complete with the shops on Stretford Road being the last visible works to be completed.

The development of the campus has been promoted highlighting that its planned specification would make it the greenest campus in Europe. [1]

In MMU's case, inevitably, some of those features did not make it off the plans. If some environmental features do not make it to implementation, its disappointing.

What is interesting with MMU is that it has applied to Manchester City Council to be make exempt from the BREEAM standards when it comes to the shops on Stretford Road. [2] The BREEAM standard against which the sustainability of new, non-residential buildings in the UK is assessed. [3][4]

To deliberately look for exemption from this standard makes MMU's environmental statements more marketing than principle.

They should think again and withdraw their planning request.

 

Notes

1. http://www.mmu.ac.uk/news/news-items/2054/
2. http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=NS72MUBC6K000
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREEAM
4. http://www.breeam.org/about.jsp?id=66

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What's on the horizon for Hulme?

Hulme has changed in the past and will change again. Hulme in the 1870s was home to 75,000 people and was predominately made up of terraced housing. Then the 1960s and 1970s saw the building of big blocks of flats like the Crescents. Now the large blocks have gone and where they once stood we have Hulme Park and private houses. Recently Hulme has seen Manchester Metropolitan University building on Birley Fields.

Hulme and the surrounding area is about to change again. The Council has drawn up plans to drastically change many areas in and around Hulme. This blog entry is the first in a series which will be seeking to inform people about the changes planned for the area and to spark debate over whether these plans are what the people of Hulme want.

This article focuses on the Council’s strategy to develop the area around Great Jackson Street, which is just across from Hulme Park. The plans include proposals for a 58 storey tower and five other towers over 20 storeys high. While there are also some houses, the Council have ruled out providing any social housing or affordable housing. We believe that if the demand to build is so great for developers then surely the Council can push them to build some social housing or affordable housing. The Council claims that the site will have a mix of different types of properties but if the plans exclude affordable and social housing this mix seems to be pretty shallow.

There is also little provision for new shops or any other amenities. Without new plans these new properties will put a strain on doctors’ surgeries, dentists and schools in the area. In fact the Council has specifically mentioned that residents would be using existing services in Hulme. The people of Hulme need more jobs but this plan does not offer them. The building work would be covered by the same work schemes that the MMU Birley Fields campus was and the building work there created only a handful of jobs for local residents.

The plans have also not considered how these buildings will look to the people of Hulme. The plan makes an effort to show how the buildings will look from different positions around the city centre, but when it comes to Hulme there has been no consideration. The proposals also have little provision for public space.

Manchester does need new homes and Hulme Greens are not opposed to building in general. However, we believe that all changes to Hulme should have the clear backing of residents. The Council thinks that putting a consultation form on its website is sufficient and that this is reaching out to the public. We disagree and believe that the Council should consult more with the public before endorsing plans to radically change an area. It’s not just the public who aren’t properly consulted about new plans in the area. At a meeting on the 29th of July, Labour Hulme Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon complained that she had not been consulted about plans proposed for Cornbrook. This is despite the fact that another Labour Councillor for Hulme, Nigel Murphy is part of the Council executive which runs the Council.

The plans are just that at the moment and can be changed. At this stage it is important to make your views heard whether they be positive or negative. The Council may not be interested in hearing your views but we are, so get in touch and tell us what you think.

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"A Graveyard of Trees"

Its been an important week for Alexandra Park.

Manchester City Council stepped up the felling of trees and in response the ‘Save Alex Park Trees’ (SAPT) campaigners mobilised to having a physical presence. There is currently a small tented group resident.

Though SAPT , supported by 100s of local residents have managed to halt most of the felling, most people who got to the park were shocked and angry about what they saw. This Green Party member had similar feelings.

It was commented that the park had become ‘a graveyard of trees’.

Some of the images and video of the week are below. They are from the area called ‘Sycamore Avenue’ (running along the Claremont Road side of park). It’s gone now.

Residents filmed the footage below just after the felling began.

There is though a significant area of trees that is still being protected by campaigners and they need your help to do so.

To get further information and to help, you can contact organisers on their website.

Images from http://savealexandraparkstrees.wordpress.com/ and individual contributions. 

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Alex Park protesters take to trees to stop “Felling Vandalism"

A plan by Manchester City Council to fell over 400 healthy trees and destroy over three acres of wildlife habitat are being condemned by Whalley Range residents. The fellings planned as part of a £4.6 M series of changes to the popular Alexandra Park in Moss Side have led to protests.

Chrissy Lowe of the Save Alexandra Parks Trees campaign said "This action by the council is completely unjustified and deliberately ignores the wishes of local residents. The Council has misled the public about both
the extent and reason for felling the trees and park users regard this as an act of municipal vandalism by a council hell-bent on riding roughshod over the local residents."

The intended changes to Alexandra Park also include controversial plans to fell many much loved mature trees to make way for tennis courts despite the fact that existing courts in the park are unused and there are already
9 tennis clubs within a mile.

"Yesterday felling began and we were able to slow things down by taking to the trees. We will continue our peaceful but firm resistance to Council actions today and we urge anyone who is able to come down and support us.  The Council also failed in its statutory duty to consult local residents. We are confident that this doesn't fulfil their legal requirements and could be grounds for judicial review." says Ian Brewer also of the campaign.

Manchester Green Party Chair Deyika Nzeribe commented “The campaign group has done everything right. They got over 2000 signatures asking for the plans to be reconsidered, they got local experts to show how the councils plans could be altered to preserve trees and they have been in dialogue with both the Council and funders the Lottery every step of the way. They have been completely ignored.

To draw a parallel, last week Manchester City Council made a great show of how unfair the cuts to local budgets were and how the government were ignoring them. The council are acting in exactly the same way as the government to this local issue.”

Anyone concerned about the Council's plans is urged to contact the Save Alexandra Parks Trees Group. A similar plan to fell 476 in Whalley Range was abandoned a year ago following a public outcry.

To get involved contact

Ian Brewer and Chrissy Lowe

savealexandraparkstrees@hotmail.com

07757639668

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Alexandra-Park-Trees/405847552830652?fref=ts

http://savealexandraparkstrees.wordpress.com/

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MMU and Me: We have a problem

This is a personal opinion and does not reflect the views of Hulme Green Party or Manchester Green Party.

It seems that these are the last days of Hulme’s Birley Fields. Though full planning permission for the proposed campus is yet to be granted to Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) the organisation has fenced off the fields and begun digging up some of the plant-life.

The reality of MMU’s actions has stirred an angry reaction in the Hulme community with talk of occupying the green space in protest.

MMU is touting itself as one of the greenest universities in the country and I expect the new 7 building campus will push it up the People and Planet’s‘Green university’ list.

As part of the ‘Save Birley Fields’ campaign, we argued that the fields, which have grown naturally from derelict land over the past 30 years, are teeming with biodiversity  and as the most intense area of green space in Hulme, was of great benefit to the community.

MMU have argued that it was just a ‘brownfield site’. For myself I only see trees, bushes and wild flowers.

There are arguments backwards and forwards on the benefits the new campus will bring to the neighbourhood but MMU is already primarily based in Hulme which as a consequence already has oneof the highest student densities (p17) in the city. Along the quarter of a mile from Oxford Road to the landmark Hulme Bridge, the buildings are almost exclusively MMU related or student accommodation. The new campus would extend this.

My main issue is not with the main academic building as promoted nicely on the MMU website. It’s that of the 7 buildings in the proposal, 5 of them are 10 storey student accommodation blocks that will take up the majority of the green space.

The protests against the original planning permission got surprising little coverage in the local press despite

• It being a major local election issue for Hulme
• Local campaigners attempting to engage the MMU to negotiate on the size of the campus and to deal with the clear additional problems the new campus would bring to the area
• A reportfrom MMU’s own researchers criticizing the quality of consultation with the local community.

During this period ironically MMU was awarded a contract from the government to train ‘community champions’.

In its behaviour MMU are little different to Barclays Bank

• getting the local council to ‘donate’ Birley Fields, public land (estimated value at least £10m) to the University
• using its influence to push its vision for Manchester through the ‘Manchester Corridor’ group on whose board sits MMU Vice Chancellor John Brooks, responsible for pushing the MMU/ Birley Fields proposal, the Council’s Leader, Richard Leese and Chief Exec Howard Bernstein.
• having Eamonn O’Neill on the MMU board of governors. Mr O’Neill is the managing editor of the Manchester Evening News, the biggest circulation local paper in the city. (MMU hastily removed the page when it was point out on facebook but as you can see…)

Ultimately they say the case for the campus as proposed, is an economic argument.

For Hulme, I can’t see it. MMU seems to have enough of Hulme already and this is a lot to lose for very little gain.

So it seems likely that the new Eco-campus will be built on the Birley Fields grasslands when the majority of that space can be saved. The MMU, as its doing already, will use it as a marketing ploy to attract new students.

But an Eco-campus built on wild urban meadow and that damages a community is a lie.

So I have a marketing message of my own.

Congratulations to the students who have passed their 2012 A-Levels, it’s a difficult step to get over.

So now you are looking at University places.

MMU has some good facilities and some great people work there. BUT if within your selection criteria are a University’s environmental credentials, I can’t recommend MMU.

Go somewhere more honest and more prepared to work with the community its based in.

Deyika Nzeribe.

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