Ordsall locals descended onto Salford Lads Club on Friday to dispute a project that have left them feeling “squeezed out and prised off (their) own estate.”
Developers behind the project put on the second phase of consultations with the local residents to try and resolve any qualms.
Nic Leonard, 47, from Ordsall, said: “Ordsall is caught in a pincer movement between Salford Quays and Manchester City centre and we’re being squeezed out and prised off our own estate.
“They’re our local shops, where are we meant to shop? We have one bus service that comes once an hour and a lot of our estate are disabled. They’re older people. Where are they meant to go?”
Ms Leonard added: “We don’t need gentrification, we don’t need yet more apartments. There are so many apartments going up everywhere. It’s our estate and we’re losing it bit by bit.”
On the other hand, Stu Wheeler, 39, associate architect at Matt Brook Architects, views the project as a “generational opportunity.”
Mr Wheeler said: “This is genuinely the best project that I’ve worked on. It’s a great site, it’s strategic in terms of its location. It’s an opportunity for Salford.
“The great thing about it is bringing forward not just buildings, but community, a brand new public park and transforming it while retaining the local centre, so keeping things the community needs and then it will offer all the other quality that comes with it.”
One of the key concerns of the proposal for locals has been the potential loss of shopping space from the area.
Mr Wheeler cleared this issue up by explaining the obligation to create space for new shops in the development.
He said: “Salford City Council designated this as a local centre, which means there’s a requirement to address local needs.
“Places change and for people that have been here for 30 years and have seen this, you’ve got every right to wonder what’s going to happen to the place, especially when it’s what we’re hearing continuously.
“What we’re trying to communicate as much as we can is that there are new dwellings going here, but there’s also a really good amount of commercial space.”
Mr Wheeler said the location will feature space for “nearly 90,000 square feet of commercial properties.”
Another local resident, George Tapp, 74, from Ordsall shared concerns about the impact ten new towers could have on the landscape.
Mr Tapp said: “I’ve lived here all my life, I’ve seen the third lot of development on the site, they’re not bringing anything new.
“The buzzword is, ‘it’s a park’, well I can’t see a park, I can see a concrete jungle.”
He added: “I grew up in the time of the dark satanic mills, we had to have sun light treatment because we didn’t see the daylight. We’re now getting surrounded by dark, satanic apartments.”
Ashleigh Davis, 26, Project Consultant for LDA Design, the company that drew up plans for the new public park on the site shared a sunnier outlook.
Miss Davis said: “It’s basically a 3.5 hectare park and it’s a 5 hectare site and it’s got a park at the heart of it, so the masterplan is called Regent Park, but the park is called West Union Park.
She described how the new park will be “heritage inspired” and hark back to its industrial roots as a mineral train yard.
Another issue raised with the proposal was the idea that high-end apartments are being prioritised over housing for the least well off as well as overcrowding.
Mr Tapp said: “They put these buzzwords up like tackling poverty, affordable housing, reducing homelessness. We can’t see any of these it’s just laughable.
“The schools are full already, the doctors are full, the dentist has just shut down, so there’s no facilities for all these people moving in.”
Ms. Leonard said: “The estate prop has been neglected while the periphery is moving in with luxury.”
Mr Wheeler confirmed that the 3,200-apartment development would provide affordable housing, with the total number subject to council recommendations.
He said: “There’s a highly competitive rental market and there’s a housing crisis. There’s a significant part of accommodation that’s going to feed that, but it’s also as an affordable housing provision, which is going in as part of it as well it’s not just one blanket monotonous type of accommodation.
“There’s a mixture of one type including high quality aspect ones, family units, ones with private terraces and again on the doorstep of the park, so high quality homes including the affordable ones.”
While this is the second period of consultation from the developers some locals feel their voices are not being heard.
Ms. Leonard said: “No one from the church knew, no one from the allotments knew. We only found out because our councillor emailed us about it.
“How can they get an opinion when we’ve not been invited?”
Planner Francesca Opoku-Gyamfi, 26, echoed the importance of consulting with local residents and the wider public.
Ms. Opoku-Gyamfi said: “It’s really important that you understand the context in the place you’re trying to develop, I can understand what it can feel like when things are changing in a place that you’ve known your whole life.”
“This is why I think community engagement is so important, because I’m always for improvement, but essentially we need to hear from people as to what they like to see, so we won’t make any assumptions, but we will deliver something that has been revised following feedback.”
The magnitude of the project has proved divisive with many locals throughout Ordsall reluctant to see such large change.
Ms. Leonard said: ” I was relocated here, because I used to live in Manchester City Centre on the streets, so that’s why I’m so passionate because Ordsall gave me a home and Ordsall gave me a family and I’ll fight for Ordsall.”
Plans for the proposal can be found here.
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