Two huge planning rows will resume next week as proposals that have been called an 'unimaginative cereal box' and 'a street going nowhere' will be debated.
Applications to build a 752-home, 25- and 50-storey towers on Great Ancoats Street drew the ire of critics at the last planning meeting (November 21), with one lambasting the skyscrapers as 'another unimaginative cereal box'.
"I do not think I have seen a proposal brought forward with utter contempt for councillors in the area, for residents, and for the council's policies," Piccadilly Coun Sam Wheeler, Labour, said. "This breaks the framework SimpsonHaugh wrote by four storeys. That topped out at 45 storeys and this is taller than that.
"So we are seeing, at the first development, you can ignore the [strategic regeneration framework], you can ignore councillors, and you can ignore residents and that's simply not correct."
Opposition was also fierce to the planned redevelopment of the Chorlton Cross shopping precinct, with developers PJ Livesey planning to build 262 flats, a new maker's yard, and shops on the 1970s block.
'Save Chorlton Centre' campaigners' heckles almost forced the meeting's suspension last month after spokesperson Jackie Lindsay said: "This is 172pc denser than the high-density limit for district centres.
"These buildings are massively overbearing. It's a huge gated community more suited for the city centre not neighbourhood centres. It's a street going nowhere, hemmed in between two buildings."
Both items were deferred last month so councillors could take a closer look with a site visit, and will be debated again next week (December 18). Like last time, both items have been recommended for approval.
They are not the only hold-outs, either. A bid to retain a marquee used for weddings and religious services at the British Muslim Heritage Centre in Whalley Range was also deferred for a site visit, although officers recommend councillors refuse the proposal this month.
Other items on the agenda include an extension in Abraham Moss, and demolishing a former garage on Seymour Road in Crumpsall to make way for a community, education, and commercial building. There is also a bid to build two artificial football pitches, a multi-use games area, a skate park, and a new pavilion with cafe and changing rooms at Wythenshawe Park.
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