Birley Fields (Manchester)

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  Rachel Wilson (guest)

  Birley Fields is an area of brownfield land untouched for roughly 15 years. Despite being earmarked over 10 years ago for "community" and "environmentally 'green'" purposes by the City Council, all ideas from the community fell on deaf ears and the Council is now in the early stages of selling the land to the highest bidder. Practical projects suggested included an ethical timber re-use and recycling not-for-profit, which was ready to start building almost immediately. Other, less solid but just as deserving of the original brief projects included permaculture projects, gardens, parks (Hulme's multi-million pound redevelopment left us with a park which is so barren it was immediately taken over by 'gangsta' culture and nobody goes there to walk their dog let alone let their kids play there!) and even a city farm. However, the "consultants" (Jones Lang LaSalle plc.) still seem intent on selling to the highest bidder despite the council approving in principal all of the above ideas, and sending the representative back to rewrite more supermarkets and road-related (read "oil" + "pollution") out of their plan. It is not yet decided, but it seems inevitable that the last green space left in Hulme with real native trees more than a few years old will soon go under the hammer to the highest bidder. A lot of people cannot understand the strong feelings in the community about this issue; I say; just look at property prices and architectural style in the "new" Hulme and ask yourself - if that's all you had, would you defend it? I say, probably.

  19 years ago | reply | hide comment