Jonathan Schofield picks out some recent stories from across the city

‘Old Trafford Stadium’ was not promised money by Reeves

Often people read what they want to see. When Rachel Reeves, red in the face, shouted ‘Growth, growth, growth!’ on Wednesday 29 January she also said this: "The government is backing Andy Burnham’s plans for the redevelopment of Old Trafford, which promises to create new housing and commercial development around a new stadium to drive regeneration and growth in the area.” Tellingly she did not elaborate on how ministers would be "backing" the scheme or when further details might be forthcoming.

Her comments categorically do not mean the government will be financing or part-financing the much talked about redevelopment or rebuild of MUFC’s battered Old Trafford Stadium. Still this was inferred in the alert from The Times shown below and also stated on the BBC Radio 4's World at One show. It means the governement are simply backing the big idea for the area, the £4.2bn plan aiming to deliver 5,000 homes within ‘new neighbourhoods’ plus commercial premises. This scheme would tie together United, the Imperial War Museum North and Manchester Ship Canal across 375 acres. 

By the way Andy Burnham is just one of the parties keen to push this forward. There’s no timeframe either and it’s unclear how the claimed ‘48,000 jobs’ would arrive. If one were to be cycnical one might think the mention of Old Trafford was a northern sop to offset money for Heathrow's third runway and the Oxford/Cambridge rail link.  

Anyway if Rachel Reeves really does want to invest in Old Trafford Stadium could she buy United a new team first?

2025 01 30 Old Trafford Redevelopment
It's a big area Reeves was referring to, not the stadium as such Image: Trafford Metropolitan Council
2025 01 30 Old Trafford Misinformation
No it's not about the stadium: The Times on 29 January Image: screenshot

Piccadilly Gardens wall

The fact no support was promised for Old Trafford Stadium but lots of people thought there was reminds one of how people assumed the whole of the Piccadilly Gardens wall was going to be demolished last year. It was never going to be that, but still, the removal of the canopy between the units has undoubtedly lightened the structure. Now all we need is the big reveal of the £25m plans from LDA for the rest of the ‘Gardens’ which is 18 months late. 

Please let us know dear Manchester City Council what's happening with the 'Gardens'. 

2024 09 10 Piccadilly Gardens Wall Part 97 2
The gap in the wall is an improvement but when is the big plan for other changes appearing Image: Confidentials

MMU to get rid of rubbishy nineties halls 

The 1990s tat along Cambridge Street close and not far from All Saints gardens is to go if Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) gets its way. No doubt the replacements plans will raise some heat given their scale including two towers of 30 and 24 storeys. The plans will increase the student population on the site by 1,560 to 2,330. Unite Students (of course) will be the developer which sort of makes this part of the city with its towers around New Wakefield Street, UniteStudentville. 

According to Place North West magazine MMU claim they need more than 5,000 new beds every year to cope with student numbers. Really, seems a lot. In recent years students have been housed as far away as Huddersfield which is of course mad. The architects are Cartwright Pickard and landscape architects are Reform. If connectivity with Oxford Road is improved, if there are some landscaping benefits and more variety to the Cambridge Street aspect then all well and good. However it seems a shame that buildings not thirty years old have been deemed inadequate on the grounds of 'energy and thermal efficiency' and not meeting 'market expectations'. 

A public consultation is up and running online now until Wednesday 19 February. There's a live public webinar on Thursday 6 February at 6pm plus a drop-in event at the Students’ Union, Higher Cambridge Street, Wednesday 12 February between 3pm-7pm.

Here are the plans and an option to make your opinions known.

241206 3 Daerial
New Cambridge Street halls proposals Image: Turleys

Mad rant of the week

Speaking of Place North West this shouty 'Anonymous' rant about the above Unite Students development at MMU was amusing. ‘So an extreme hard left and very anti British worker “union” is indulging in capitalism. Unite will be making money out of this. The very thing that they are (apparently) so disgusted by and totally opposed to. The great deception continues.’  To which the Place North West's writer Dan Whelan replied: ‘Unite Students is in no way connected to the trade union called Unite.’ 

What a daft anonymous angry person: talk about leaping to conclusions, getting the wrong end of the stick...add other cliches of your choice. Of course the person (man, obviously) could have been confused with Unite Union's terrible problem in Birmingham, but still...

2025 01 30 This City Rant
Rant, rant, rant, wrong Image: Open access

Lido let’s go in Holt Town

A decade long plan is now in place for Holt Town, that dead zone of rundown buildings and flytipping between Ancoats and the Etihad Stadium. It all looks good so let’s hope delivery is set in stone. The plan is for 4,500 homes of various building types with at least 20% ‘genuinely’ affordable homes, a mixed-use area with 30,000 square feet of commercial space, including ground floor uses, live-in workspace and smaller office floor space plus 15 acres of greenery utilising the assets of the River Medlock and the Ashton Canal. There will also be a 'Cultural Hub' and the exciting bit for everyone it would appear, a lido. This would not be the first public lido in Manchester so, decades later, let’s hope these happy scenes from 1945 and Platt Fields Park can be re-enacted.

2025 01 30 Lido At Platt Fields Park
Lido at Platt Fields Park in 1945 Image: Jonathan Schofield
2025 01 30 Holt Town Lido
How the Holt Town lido might look Image: Manchester City Council

HOME expands to Whitworth Street West 

This should make a dead part of Whitworth Street West feel livelier. The railway arches that back on to HOME arts centre at First Street have been turned into a new £3.5 million artist development hub designed by Jon Matthews Architects. It has a very reasonable title, given some recent branding initiatives in the city, of HOME Arches. The aim is ‘to support local creatives by offering 5,000 hours of free making, studio, and development space each year’. 

There are exhibition areas including a public facility, co-working areas, rehearsal spaces. Apparently half the available space is ‘dedicated to artists from underrepresented groups, including members of the Global Majority, d/Deaf and disabled artists, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.’ Wasn’t HOME already doing this? For the record, 'global majority' is a collective term, informs Wikipedia, 'for people of Indigenous, African, Asian, or Latin American descent, who constitute approximately 85 percent of the global population'. It's a term that isn't without controversy, but, then, which one isn't?

2025 01 30 Jules Lister
Home Arches Image: Jules Lister

Dynamic pricing at Aviva Studios: is this right?

To use the official title, ‘Aviva Studios, home of Factory International’ hosted a very popular show from David Hockney this month and last called Bigger and Closer (not smaller & further away). The series of photo montages flickering around a large room on an hourly loop with Hockney’s restful Yorkshire voice explaining what was going on was engaging and entertaining. 

Our show on 21 January was £36.50 per ticket which was far more than the original £20 ticket. The booking read 'the prices for this event are dynamically priced'. This was a surprise given the furore over the dynamic pricing of the Oasis gigs this year with questions raised in Parliament and across all media and broadcasting networks. 

Factory International Studios clearly needs to make as much money as possible but it left a bad taste in the mouth given this is a publicly funded organisation in a publicly funded building. Of course we realise there are concession tickets and £10 tickets for those on a lower income, but dynamic pricing doesn't seem a great way to gain audience support. Oh, and given the scale of the building, can't room be found for a cloakroom?

2025 01 30 Hockney Pricing 1
Dynamic pricing for Aviva Studios: is this a good look? Image: Confidentials
2025 01 30 Hockney Pricing 2
Hockney at Aviva Studios: an engaging and entertaining hour Image: Confidentials

Sacha Lord resigns from advisory role to Andy Burnham

Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards 2024: The Winners


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