The refreshed Stretford Masterplan has been published. Essentially, it’s still capitalising on the anticipated influx of students arising from UA92 and the provision of living accommodation and student facilities in Stretford Town Centre. However, the amount of living accommodation on the Lacy Street site is significantly reduced alongside reduced ambition on the canalside.

Aims of Masterplan

The delivery of the UA92 proposed development will form the centrepiece of the refreshed Masterplan to transform Stretford, bring significant additional activity and expenditure to the Town Centre, support the evening economy, provide additional direct and indirect job opportunities, bring vacant buildings back into use, accelerate the delivery of other sites and act as catalyst for further investment.

Essoldo

The Masterplan imagines opportunities to bring The Essoldo back into use. Since I’m struggling to remember any previous declaration of positive intent towards the Essoldo prior to the first draft, this aspect still has to be welcomed.

The interdependence with new student/residential development on Lacy Street is still apparent and if that residential component is reduced (which seems to the way we’re heading), getting the Essoldo back in use might be more difficult.

The former Essoldo building itself would provide opportunities for the provision of student amenities and other uses accessible to the whole community, including the potential for a relocated and significantly enhanced library facility.

A new pedestrian link would be provided through to the canal opening up access to this important asset.

Edge Lane

There’s less mention of Edge Lane than in the first draft. It’s still in the plan and the key task remains:

Securing the reuse of the Essoldo building and vacant units along Edge Lane

Lacy Street

This has always been where the Masterplan gets contentious. At one point there was a proposal that the University itself would be developed here before the Kellogg site came into play.

I was never convinced that having a university in the centre itself had as much regenerative potential as suggested by a certain local councillor colleague.

Then we had the proposal below from the first draft that many considered overdevelopment.

There are definitely question marks as to the financing of this scheme and the viability of the council’s development partners. I don’t think it’s entirely down to a public backlash that the scheme is reduced.

The revised masterplan abandons the ambition for dense accommodation here and says of Lacy Street;

The Council will undertake further masterplanning work to develop more detailed development proposals for the site in early 2018. This will comprise a significantly lower and less dense scheme than that considered during the public consultation and will incorporate the provision of affordable/key worker housing, alongside some student accommodation and retail/food and drink uses at the ground floor level.

So, all we can say is reduced density and perhaps this area is less of a focus of in the rejuvenated Stretford.

The Mall

Development at this site should be outward facing and make best used of the opportunities to improve the public realm around the Mall and support the delivery of a wider mix of town centre uses. In the longer term, subject to private investment, there are opportunities to ‘open up’ or redevelop other areas of the Mall, such as King Street or Arndale House

The Mall is clearly continuing to be a problem.

Leisure Facilities

I did feed back in the consultation that I felt the town centre could sustain a sports/leisure centre in addition to the one going in at the UA92 campus. I still believe that.

Similarly, Stretford and Old Trafford’s medical provision is in need of renewal. We haven’t replaced Bennett Street and I think there are opportunities to create something exciting combining both health and fitness in one location in Stretford.

All-Weather pitches are still proposed on Turn Moss and I’m broadly in favour, although I hear the outcry.

My Verdict

Lacy Street needed to be tall (5-12 storeys). It needed to be dense.

Many will welcome the reduced residential density of Lacy Street. I regret the reduction. My sense is that dedicated student accommodation probably was overprovided for, but that doesn’t mean tall residential isn’t the right choice here. The transport links are very good. It’s exactly the right place to build up density.
Without that density, I worry about the ambitions for the Essoldo, regeneration of Edge Lane and the retail/leisure element within Lacy Street.

Canalside

I am also very disappointed with the specific Stretford Masterplan proposals for the canalside. I feel that in sacrificing the opportunity to develop the canalside into an attractive recreational setting, we’re undermining the economic stimulus provided by any influx of students.

Stretford has excellent transport connections to Manchester and elsewhere. It has hundreds of passengers alighting at the Stretford Metrolink stop everyday, emerging onto the bridge over the canal. Having a picturesque canal is usually by default an economic blessing in any regeneration. Think of Camden Lock, think of Birmingham, even Sale. Stretford’s residents have been telling us what they value in the village centre. I felt we were on the cusp of something really worthwhile.

The canalside has always been cited as a focal point of Stretford’s revival. It would be great to see that dream be realised. It’s a generational opportunity.

This does not preclude student accommodation in Stretford, nor indeed on Lacy Street. Getting right a cafe/restaurant/village shopping quarter on the canalside, at ground level, makes adding the student accommodation to enhance the scheme so much easier rather than the other way round; and creates a symbiosis between the two. It’s our one chance to give purpose to the Essoldo and I think we’re bottling it.