When a friend of mine said that there was only one tree
left in the Manchester
Peace Gardens, I was wondering what he was talking about. But I thought I
would go and see myself.He was wrong of course. There are no trees left at the Peace Gardens. I was taken aback and from the expressions of the passers-by, so was everyone else. I took some pictures.
Manchester was quite rightly renown as the first city to declare itself ‘nuclear-free’. The Peace Gardens were created as part of the celebration of that action and had been an attraction to the city as part of the Peace and Social Justice Trail and part of the world-wide network of Peace Gardens.
That has gone now.
(Apologies for the lens smudge.)
It’s a particularly sensitive time in the city regarding its environment, with Manchester City Council’s plans to fell large numbers of trees at Alexandra Park being resisted by local campaigners and the Mersey Valley set to lose its wardens.
Ironically in place of what once was the Peace Gardens will now be the relocated War memorial according to plans.
The only certainty in those plans that required the destruction of the Gardens is the buildings. As the overlong leaders of the city ‘regenerate’ it, its seems to me that they look to shape their legacies in concrete.
The Peace Gardens went down without a fight, February 2013. The Alexandra Park campaign is putting up resistance and generating local support in defence of the park trees and wildlife.
They deserve all the support they can get, see their website for latest news and what you can do to help.