黑洞社区

Communities secretary Sajid Javid is being urged to call in the decision to approve Hodder & Partners鈥� 40-storey St Michael鈥檚 development in Manchester for a public inquiry overseen by a planning inspector.

Campaign group Save Britain鈥檚 Heritage, backed by the Victorian Society and Manchester Civic Society, is questioning the balancing process by which Manchester City Council was able to offset the scheme鈥檚 impact on existing historic buildings against public benefits offered by the new scheme. The Twentieth Century Society also supports the call-in request.

Save director Henrietta Billings said the scheme鈥檚 developers 鈥� a consortium fronted by former Manchester United stars Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, with the backing of Chinese investor BCEGI Group 鈥� were 鈥渃ashing in鈥� with a tower when a 鈥渨orld-class contextual development鈥� was possible.

She said the proposals were being foisted on Manchester鈥檚 Deansgate/Peter鈥檚 Street Conservation Area, which predominantly features 19th-century buildings of three to six storeys. Billings added that there were 72 listed buildings within 250m of the scheme 鈥� among them the grade I-listed Town Hall and Albert Memorial.

鈥淐onservation areas are meant to protect important streets and spaces from exactly this type of overscaled scheme,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need an independent public inquiry to fully assess its impact.鈥�

Government heritage adviser Historic England said it was unable to support the Hodder proposals on heritage grounds because of the 鈥渃umulative harm that would be caused to highly graded listed buildings鈥�, but it stopped short of objecting to the plans.

Manchester councillors gave a 鈥渕inded to approve鈥� verdict on Hodder鈥檚 plans at a meeting last week, less than three months after they were submitted for perusal. If Javid calls in the scheme, a planning inspector will be appointed to review the proposals and report to the secretary of state for a final decision, a process that is unlikely to conclude within a year.

In a report for the councillors, the city鈥檚 planning officers said Javid had signalled he 鈥渨ould like the opportunity to consider whether call-in is appropriate for this application鈥�.

The Hodder scheme is valued at 拢200m and would deliver up to 189 apartments and a 216-room hotel in the main tower. A separate 10-storey block would deliver 13,721sq m of new commercial space.

Hodder was appointed to the scheme last year after earlier proposals by Ken Shuttleworth鈥檚 Make Architects were pulled.