Consultation opens on plans for 1,550 homes in Red Bank

The latest range of public consultation for part of Victoria North’s emerging Red Bank neighbourhood has been launched by Far East Consortium (FEC) ahead of the submission of a detailed planning application in spring 2023.

The consultation will showcase emerging detail on the delivery of 1,550 new homes across three plots of land next to FEC’s Victoria Riverside scheme on Dantzic Street.

The proposed scheme will see the construction of seven buildings varying in height between six and 34 stories designed by Manchester-based practice Hawkins\Brown alongside Maccreanor Lavington’s Rotterdam studio.

On completion, this will bring to market a mix of one-, two- and three-bed apartments and townhouses catering for a diverse mix of tenure needs, including build-to-rent (BTR), affordable and open market sale.

Guided by the Red Bank masterplan’s Wild Urbanism concept, FEC plans to embrace the area’s challenging topography to bring forward a unique variety of green spaces open to residents, visitors to the neighbourhood and the surrounding existing community.

FEC says the blueprint for this site has been designed with the public realm at its heart and will see the creation of new green pedestrian routes, strong street edges and active frontages with opportunities for each building to spill out onto the street. The public realm and landscape have been designed by Copenhagen-based Schulze+Grassov, supported by local practice OP-EN.

The consultation will also highlight plans to make improvements to Dantzic Street and turn it into a European-style, tree lined boulevard with around 2,000 sq m of ground floor retail, commercial and leisure space to support the development of local independent businesses.

Timea Nacsa, development manager at FEC, said: “We have an exciting collaboration of design practices looking to bring the best of local and European design principles to create an inspiring new neighbourhood that’s diverse in character.

“Building on the Wild Urbanism concept set by the Red Bank masterplan, the scheme has been designed from the ground up with a huge focus on the public realm to create a varying landscape offer and continuous activation as you transition through the neighbourhood.

“We hope to see residents, local businesses, and stakeholders come along and meet our team to find out more about our proposals.”

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said: “Red Bank represents an incredibly exciting first phase of the long term investment into the Victoria North area – alongside the investment the joint venture is making in Collyhurst to the north of the programme area.

“This area at the edge of the city centre is a challenging prospect, but the emerging proposals for Red Bank present an ambitious vision for the new neighbourhood, bringing life to a part of Manchester that has been underused for many years.”

He added: “Feedback on the proposals is always invaluable to help guide future planning applications and I would urge local people and businesses to get involved.”

The consultation process will be open from today (February 21), and will enable community stakeholders to see the latest vision of the Red Bank neighbourhood and feedback on the detailed design proposals. This phase of consultation includes two drop-in sessions, both at GRUB, 50 Red Bank, on Tuesday, February 28, between 15:00-19:00, and Thursday, March 2, between 11:00-15:00.

Those who can’t attend in person will be able to review and comment on the proposals via the consultation website, which will go live on the day of the first consultation drop-in event.

Red Bank is one of the first of seven neighbourhoods to be regenerated within the strategic masterplan for Victoria North – one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the UK, delivering 15,000 new homes across North Manchester over the next 15 years.

After receiving planning permissions for both an initial phase of enabling works and a package of infrastructure investment, Manchester City Council has begun the process of making more of the Red Bank neighbourhood ready for development, utilising £51.6m of funding from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund.