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Post by owainsutton on Oct 4, 2020 18:14:13 GMT
Let us not forget that there were flats on top of the Arndale. They'd go for a song now. It was something I hadn't realised until the 1996 Manchester IRA bomb, when we heard of people trapped in the flats. They were outside of the evacuation zone, I think, but ended up cut off by the carnage? |
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CatholicLeft
Co-operative Party
2032 posts until I was "accidentally" deleted.
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Post by CatholicLeft on Oct 4, 2020 18:20:09 GMT
It was something I hadn't realised until the 1996 Manchester IRA bomb, when we heard of people trapped in the flats. They were outside of the evacuation zone, I think, but ended up cut off by the carnage? No, their flats were lifted and damaged. I remember one elderly Irish man trapped up there. As before, when the IRA bomb cities, Irish people were often the casualties. |
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neilm
Non-Aligned
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Post by neilm on Oct 5, 2020 0:09:02 GMT
Wasn't someone ill and refused to get out of bed?
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unrepentantfool
Socialist
Politically homeless but not politically inactive :D
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Post by unrepentantfool on Oct 5, 2020 0:10:55 GMT
If I remember from the SABRE Wiki, everything in the area was demolished in preparation for a motorway to Sheffield. Such a waste, but it happened everywhere. 2 whole streets of terraced houses disappeared with the building of the IDR in Reading. Keep an eye out when on a train to/from Manchester Piccadilly. The huge platform at Longsight station, built to cater for excursion trains to the zoo, is still intact in substantial parts among the depot now on the site. Oh OK, I will. I wonder if they will reuse it at some point, I'm sure that they have an aspiration to extend Metrolink to Stockport following an alignment quite close to that route. |
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unrepentantfool
Socialist
Politically homeless but not politically inactive :D
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Post by unrepentantfool on Oct 5, 2020 0:22:47 GMT
Even as an ex Labour member , I would usually describe most Labour councillors in established administrations as total jobsworths when it comes to development. I saw the BBC documentary on Manchester and they seemed to just roll over and accept the social cleansing of the residents they represent, which disgusts me. It's not quite as bad in Reading, no local residents have been actually forced out, but they just wave through development after development of luxury flats for ex-Londoner commuters which no Redingensian could ever afford on a normal wage. These people have the cheek to call themselves socialists when they ultimately are serving the rich and powerful by allowing developers effectively to expel the residents of a neighbourhood as and when they please. On the multistorey, I can't see how it would attract traffic if the multistorey had the same number of spaces, they could maybe add a few floors to provide a residents parking area for the new adjacent social housing estate that should be built on the remaining land, but I'm not holding my breath... The development on that car park is a really good idea, except the loss of car parking spaces. I reckon they should consolidate the car parking spaces into 2 or 3 large new multistoreys on the nearest existing sites to ensure that people continue to have access when they need it and movement within the inner ring road is limited. I know they want to limit driving and increase air quality in the city centre, but you could do this by making most streets part of an access based on proven need or disability e.g trade requirements or mobility issues. Looking at the map, I'd exempt the Salford side from the restrictions, but rebuild the Manchester Arena, Arndale and Manchester Central Car Parks as large multistoreys and then build small social housing estates on the rest. The Arena and Arndale carparks already are large multistoreys (unless by Arena you mean the open space where Boddington's brewery used to be). The Manchester Central carpark is in the G-MEX undercroft, you couldn't really make that a multistorey without demolishing the exhibition centre on top of it. I knew the Arena and Arndale carparks are already large multistoreys, but they could be rebuilt to add more spaces, no? The foundations would need rebuilding, so it wouldn't be cheap, but being able to free up loads of land for social housing right in the city centre would be a massive win for Manchester City Council and GM as a whole. And, if that space where the brewery used to be is free, then an extra car park could be built there to avoid rebuilding the Arena car park. As for the Manchester Central carpark, maybe it would be a wise idea to leave that as the private car park for those attending events at the GMEX and then add floors to the car park on Oxford St as the 3rd large car park. |
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neilm
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Post by neilm on Oct 5, 2020 0:34:47 GMT
How are you going to rebuild/enhance the Arndale car park to free up land in town for housing? You'd not only need to sort out the foundations and lower floors, you'd have to totally re-site the Arndale delivery area and the part of the actual shopping centre that is underneath it during the works, and possibly after. And then redevelop a load of public transport provision, including relocating the Exchange Square tram stop, to cope with more people needing to get from A to B.
The government is reining in the conversion of offices into flats (it has been abused by shyster developers although the concept was good). However, Arndale House is a potential site for conversion into social housing, especially as all the Sainsury's staff seem to be working from home (and I hear that Northern Foods may be moving towards that as well).
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unrepentantfool
Socialist
Politically homeless but not politically inactive :D
Posts: 901
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Post by unrepentantfool on Oct 5, 2020 1:00:41 GMT
How are you going to rebuild/enhance the Arndale car park to free up land in town for housing? You'd not only need to sort out the foundations and lower floors, you'd have to totally re-site the Arndale delivery area and the part of the actual shopping centre that is underneath it during the works, and possibly after. And then redevelop a load of public transport provision, including relocating the Exchange Square tram stop, to cope with more people needing to get from A to B. The government is reining in the conversion of offices into flats (it has been abused by shyster developers although the concept was good). However, Arndale House is a potential site for conversion into social housing, especially as all the Sainsury's staff seem to be working from home (and I hear that Northern Foods may be moving towards that as well). My choice of car parks to keep was possibly poor, but the general idea is that there are way too many surface car parks within the inner Ring Road and they would be ideal sites for some small social housing estates in the city centre. Even 5-10 sites with tower blocks of social housing on could provide thousands of new homes for those on council waiting lists in a city with an acute hotspot of the national housing crisis and reduce the need to shove huge allocations on neighbouring boroughs. |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Oct 5, 2020 8:43:57 GMT
Keep an eye out when on a train to/from Manchester Piccadilly. The huge platform at Longsight station, built to cater for excursion trains to the zoo, is still intact in substantial parts among the depot now on the site. Oh OK, I will. I wonder if they will reuse it at some point, I'm sure that they have an aspiration to extend Metrolink to Stockport following an alignment quite close to that route. The Metrolink extension to Stockport will almost certainly be from East Didsbury (the bus station has been re-aligned to allow for this). But it always seems to be the next thing to happen! |
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