City push ahead with Eastlands regeneration

MANCHESTER City Football Club is expected to gain approval this week to clear an 80-acre regeneration site close to its ground.

A demolition company called Brookshaw Developments, which is controlled by the football club, is seeking permission to begin preparatory work on the Openshaw West site off Alan Turing Way in east Manchester.

The site was occupied by Clayton Aniline Chemical Works which was demolished in 2006. There is also evidence of 13 mine shafts, railway sidings, a forge and other industrial works.

According to a development plan that has been put out to consultation the club wants to use most of the site for football and community facilities with commercial development where the land fronts Alan Turing Way and Ashton New Road. A corner plot facing the stadium is earmarked for “significant commercial development” and will be linked to Eastlands with a bridge.

“The development of this large area of derelict and underused land… should be of such a scale that its energy and impact must be carefully directed to maximise its benefits for the site, the Eastlands area and the wider East Manchester context,” states the plan.

“The former industrial site at Openshaw West is larger than Phillips Park and the stimulative power of that image transformation should be extended across Eastlands. The sense of a high quality, highly sustainable, green, modern quarter of the city, benefiting from potential new investment, should be
strongly communicated to the outside world.”

A planning application by the company for remediation work on the former industrial site will be considered by councillors at a Manchester City Council meeting on June 2.

An unnamed company that operates a 24-hour call centre from offices on the site has complained about the potential disruption caused by the work but planning officers have recommended the application is approved saying the impact will be temporary.