£3.6m to get Crossley Works ready for development

URBAN regeneration company New East Manchester has bought the Crossley Works site in Openshaw.

New East Manchester has been given £3.6m by the Northwest Regional Development Agency to secure the 8.2 acre site on Pottery Lane under public ownership and pay for demolition, decontamination and preparation of the site.

Remediation will make the site ready for future redevelopment, which will be for employment or commercial uses which tie in with wider plans for the area.

New East Mancheste is in talks with The Manchester College, which adjoins the site, about extending its education facilities onto Pottery Lane, subject to funding.

Eddie Smith, chief executive of New East Manchester said: “Purchase of the site is also consistent with our objectives to promote development on the inner ring road – incorporating Hulme Hall Lane through to Alan Turing Way through to Pottery Lane – as an Arc of Employment.  We will now work towards remediating the land ready for its new use.”

Mark Hughes, executive director for economic development at the NWDA, said: “Purchase of Crossley Works will ensure that future development of this site can be undertaken in a positive manner that complements the wider vision established for the regeneration of East Manchester.

“The objective of the project is to secure control and ownership of a strategically located site and to ensure a new development is created there that will promote and contribute to the employment aspirations of east Manchester.”