Planning Decision Deferred

For those who were not at the Town Hall yesterday – or missed NW tonight we got a deferral of the Application – but not before the Committee heard all the arguments for and against.

Peter Copping spoke against the plans on behalf of Regency House and I followed for SoV.

Phil Burke from VBA spoke in favour and so did Francis Hilton as Applicant.

Councillor Ramsbottom raised objections as ward Councillor and Cllr Paul Fairweather and Cllr Mary Murphy as lead councillors for gay and lesbian issues.

So a small victory – but the big date for the diary is 15TH February – 10.30am the Planning Committee will be visiting the site – and we need to mobilise to ensure lots of residents are there and we get maximum publicity.

Then the Committee will sit at 2pm in the Council Chamber – so please put the date in your diary if you may be able to attend and let me know if you would like to get more involved in the final leg of Campaigning.

Regards

Chris Speck
Save Our Village

Update to plans

Following negotiations with English Heritage, the plans for the Whitworth Street facada of the residential building (to my knowledge) will now consist of 55% real sandstone panels. Originally they were going to be all glass with coloured backing to mimic the colour of the brick on surrounding buildings.

Two revised plans are available on the council website or on our website here.

Planning Hearing Date Announced.

Hi all,

The date for these applications to be considered by the planning committee of Manchester City Council has been announced.

Date: Thursday 18th January 2007
Time: 2PM
Venue: Manchester Town Hall
Room: Council Chamber, Level 3, Town Hall Extension

The meeting is open to the public to attend but there will very limited opportunity for the public to speak. A small number of representatives will be given a couple of minutes.

Chris Speck will speak for Save Our Village and Peter Copping wishes to speak for Regency House – but we won’t have any further opportunity as residents (and I’m told only a few minutes maximum per speaker).

Apparently some changes have been made to the plans as required by English Heritage. This does not change the size of the buildings, but will improve the appearance. I will post more information as soon as I have it.

Chris G

English Heritage Oppose Scheme

English Heritage has confirmed that they are unhappy with the scheme as submitted and are seeking amendments to it.

"Negotiations about amendments are continuing at the moment with the architect and developer, and the intention is to provide advice to the City on an amended scheme in time for the Planning Committee meeting later this month.

Once we give our advice it will be in the public domain and we will be able to let you have a copy."

Tony Lloyd MP is also involved and is requesting the application be 'called in' for consideration by Central Government as it is such a large development on an important World Heritage site.

Outcome of Community Design Exercise 6th October 2006

Community Design Generates Consensus

As part of the investigtion process by residents of the Village Area a community led design event was held by residents. At this they modelled their plans and aspirations on scale models of the Princess Street car park site. This led to a genuine consensus on appropriate designs, and provided examples of alternatives to those proposed by the developer.

The event was facilitated by the local office of URBED – an architectural cooperative based in the Northern Quarter of Manchester who have helped other groups in Manchester, notably in Hulme.

The above image shows photographs of the conference at work.