Residents are outraged as the New Islington Green is being dug up to make way for an office complex.
Located near the New Islington Metrolink stop, the grass was popular with residents and dog-walkers, but diggers entered a month ago to work on the new complex.
Electric Parks will contain five buildings for small and medium businesses, which General Projects, the developer, claim will create 3,600 jobs.
General Projects have also promised to retain two-and-a-half acres of green space.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, a spokesperson said the remaining space will be ‘significantly better quality’.
This claim was backed up by a pledge to increase biodiversity by 30% and an investment of £5m.
However, residents remain concerned and frustrated about losing their green spaces.
Dave, a 35 year-old resident of New Islington and owner of a German shepherd, said: “I feel disappointed, It was somewhere for dogs to play, in a wide open space.
“You can take them around where the boats are (the New Islington Marina) but you don’t want to be picking up dog mess when you’re outside people in cafes.
“Really now there is nowhere to go which is a big open space to play fetch and things. It’s a real shame.
“Even that new place they’ve built over at Piccadilly, you can’t let dogs off the lead. It’s just pathways, you aren’t allowed to go on the plants and things, it’s not an ideal place to bring a dog.”
Dave is referencing Mayfield Park, a new park a short walk from Piccadilly station.
Whilst this may seem the natural solution to the problem of the green space being dug up, the park, although popular, has been criticised by local dog-walkers due to its policy of not letting dogs off the lead.
Bev Craig, the Labour council leader for Manchester, stated there was ‘nothing we could do’ to stop building work from being done at the opening of Mayfield Park.
Responding to the Manchester Evening News at the opening of the park, Craig said: “If a private landowner owns a piece of land and wants to develop that within something that’s legally permissible, there’s nothing we can do.
“What we can do is press for more green space, and we have been. That could have been an office block without any green space, but we have been really clear with the levers that we have, that we want green space added to.”
Opposition councillor Alan Good, a Liberal Democrat, called for a new park in the area.
“We still haven’t heard about plans for any new green space in Ancoats or New Islington, meanwhile hundreds of new people move into the area each year,” he said.
“The city urgently needs joined-up thinking to create world class green spaces at the heart of our city-centre neighbourhoods.”
