A SECTION of the city centre’s gay village is being turned into a pedestrian only area from the weekend following huge support from residents and businesses.
The pedestrianisation of Sackville Street within the gay village on Friday and Saturday evenings will help create a better experience and safer environment for visitors to the area.
A busy stretch of Sackville Street is to be closed to cars during weekend nights from Friday August 3 to improve road safety for people visiting the area.
The street will be closed, between its junctions with Brazil Street and Richmond Street, creating a large pedestrianised zone that also includes Canal Street.
The scheme has been supported by people visiting the village as well as by businesses and Greater Manchester Police who said it will reduce the number of road accidents and crimes in the area.
Bollards will be used to turn Sackville Street into a pedestrianised area from 8pm-5.30am on Friday and Saturday nights as well as on nights before bank holidays and during special events. Emergency services vehicles will still have access to the street.
Councillor Bernard Priest, Manchester City Council’s executive member for neighbourhood services said: "Manchester’s gay village attracts thousands of people from all over the world to the city centre, and this scheme will encourage even more visitors to come and enjoy the excellent pubs and clubs we have on offer, while it was also improve road safety for people visiting the village."
Andrew Stokes, chair of the Village Business Association (VBA), said: "The pedestrianisation of Sackville Street within the gay village on Friday and Saturday evenings will help create a better experience and safer environment for visitors to the area.
"The geographical layout of the village and the proximity to each other of so many of the city’s LGBT businesses is one of Manchester’s biggest tourism and night time economy assets. Any policy that supports and improves that product has the backing of the VBA."
The Limits Of Pedestrianisation
This seems like a decent plan. Limited and targeted pedestrianisation to cope with pressure points during the day and night makes sense.
If it works on Sackville Street, then perhaps the city could look at Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter and have that pedestrianised on weekend evenings too.
At the same time as creating limited pedestrianisation the city should look at removing blanket 24 hour pedestrianisation from Market Street, King Street and St Ann's Square. It is simply not needed after 8pm.
Different solutions are needed for different areas of the city and the clumsy catch-all fashion of three decades and more ago, when the pedestrianisation of Market Street was imposed, is now defunct.
Instead the limited pedestrianisation of Cross Street - 11am to 7pm - should be the name of the game.
As a tour guide who talks to other tour guides, Market Street in particular is a street nobody takes guests down.
Devoid of customers and all the shops shuttered it becomes a spooky ghost town often populated by ne'er-do-wells. Sadly it's the same for King Street.
The reassuring dynamism of passing taxis and other vehicles makes streets feel more comfortable, more attractive, especially at night if they are sparsely populated.
At the same time the extra activity would surely be welcomed by the retailers, providing promotional opportunities as more people pass down the streets in the evening, at a time when the effect of the out-of-town shopping centres such as the Trafford Centre, the growth of internet buying, the purblind city council parking policy, and the recession, are all burning shopkeepers badly.
So while Sackville Street's limited closing seems sound, it's perhaps time to think again about pedestrianisation across the city centre in ways relevant to 2012.
Jonathan Schofield
