commercial space where the natural expansion across from Spinningfields, the very successful Allied London Scheme by the River Irwell. The plan is for about 197,000 square metres of grade A office space and 860 new homes. A lot of people live in this area already; it is very popular, only about 10 or 15-minute walk into the City Centre of Manchester. There is a new primary school in the area as well. So again, we are looking at this comprehensively and providing all the amenities that people want in terms of living and working in an area. We will also bring in some retail and have a good mix of uses.


Although the development agreement was signed there was little to see as we were working away behind the scenes within the unitary development plan, looking at planning guidance and the development framework. Part of the area was in a conservation area with listed buildings, looking at the public realm area, there was other documents such as integrated transport, signage and wayfinding a whole host of other things to get right. It is so important to get the basics right as this can carry more weight than you might think. For example one absent landowner put in a completely inappropriate planning application at about the time that all these documents were being worked up. Although the URC has no planning powers, it does comment on planning applications and obviously recommended refusal in view of the conflict with the comprehensive regeneration vision we had just produced. The applicant disagreed with us all and took it to appeal. On appeal we won including costs due to the principles of the framework and our comprehensive regeneration approach.


When the application went to the Planning Panel in January 2010 I was absolutely delighted that there was only one objector, which is quite amazing given with the amount of land holding included in the application not much of which is yet in the ownership of English Cities Fund or Salford City Council. There was unanimous support from the whole of the Planning Panel and the residents who came wanting to speak only wanted to say, “Why can’t you just get on with it?”


We went through a lot of consultation. As far as the people who live and work here are concerned the Regeneration is happening now and we want them to be our ambassadors and our voice so that if there is someone with a complaint it is the locals who can say if you just be patient this is what is coming next. We also consult very closely on environmental improvements so if there are matters of concern, such as anti-social behaviour or whatever, we tackle it. The local people have now become our eyes and ears and we get daily photographs and e-mails if there is anything untoward happening within the area.


This is the red line boundary of their application submitted at the end of 2009. In scale it is bigger than MediaCityUK covering an area of about 18 hectares. It is a hybrid application an outline application for most of the area and the detailed part was the calming of the A6 Chapel Street, so pedestrians would actually want to go there and the environment would be much more appropriate for shops, restaurants and places to live, work and play. Along with that is the huge area of


ASSET - Liverpool-10


This is an impression of how hopefully it will look eventually, looking at the new corporate centre across from Spinningfields. At the moment if you go to Spinningfields and go down the main thoroughfare at the end there is some black hoarding. This will not be there forever and is to lead to the bridge link across from Spinningfields thanks to funding from the Northwest Development Agency and match funding from Allied London and Salford City Council, which was approved at the end of 2009.


It is also important to work with local people and we are working with the local primary school, St Philips School.


Karen Hirst 63


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