Manchester Metropolitan University’s (MMU) proposal to build a £120 million campus development on Hulme’s Birley Fields is likely to go before Manchester City Council’s planning committee for consideration in late June or July 2011 regardless of some reports jumping the gun.
Local resident’s concerns about the development, some of which include the
- size of buildings
- effects on the community
- loss of open space
- traffic, congestion and pollution
remain despite MMU’s attempt to address some of these worries.
In response, local residents have
- set up a website
- held workshops on how to write ‘letters of objection’
- taken their concerns to the press with stories in the Manchester Evening News and InsidetheM60.
The group is also encouraging people to sign their online petition, http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/birleyfields/, which currently has over 250 signatures on it.
The Hulme Green Party supports the resident's campaign to stop MMU’s development until the issues raised can be addressed.
The Hulme Green Party also calls on Manchester City Council to make the effects on the Hulme community a higher priority with planning applications.
We note that currently
- MMU is doing a large scale development of its All Saints main campus
- There is the Birley Fields development, mentioned above, going for planning permission
- There is a large 650 bed student accommodation block on Coupland Street proposal going for planning permission
- There is a student accommodation building currently being built on Stretford Road
- The community is waiting to see if plans will be submitted to build more student accommodation on the ‘Gamecock pub’ site on Boundary Lane
- MMU have purchased Hulme’s ‘The Salutation’ pub and its future is now uncertain.
Its a huge amount of activity in Hulme and the combined effects could have a severe effect on the community without careful consideration.
