‘THEY ARE THE SLUMS OF THE FUTURE’: PLAN TO REPLACE RETAIL PARK WITH APARTMENT BLOCKS BLASTED

Anger has been voiced against plans to demolish part of a retail park and replace it with a new inner-city neighbourhood, with one nearby resident saying the planned multiple blocks of new homes are ‘slums of the future’.

Henley Investment Management bought Regent Retail Park for £16million in 2020 and has conducted a public consultation exercise at nearby Salford Lads Club. A prior consultation took place in March.

A planning application is expected to be submitted before the end of the year after the proposal has been ‘tweaked’ to take account of local opinion.

If Henley’s plan is eventually approved, outlets like Costa Coffee, TK Maxx and Home Bargains, would disappear from the park, although Henley says they would be able to return to the park when the development is complete. The nearby Sainsbury’s supermarket and its petrol station will be unaffected. 

However, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to locals living near the retail park who are against the plan. We also spoke to visitors, workers and two Salford councillors – none said they were in favour of the plan. 

Elaine MacDonald, 66, said:

“There were high-rise homes there before they built the retail park. They became slums and had to be knocked down.

“The new homes will be the slums of the future. This is eroding the community.”

Married couple, Paul and Marie Fidler, 67 and 66 agreed. “I don’t think it’s right,” said Marie.

“They want people to walk everywhere, but they are not thinking it through. There will be more money spent on taxis taking people to shops because the buses that serve Ordsall come once an hour, if they come at all.

“We’re looking more and more like America every day with all these high-rise blocks going up.”

Paul added:

“People on the Ordsall estate are struggling to put food in people’s mouths. The only good thing is that Sainsbury’s will still be there.

“But Costa Coffee will go – the only place where people can sit and have a chat and a drink after the cafe at Sainsbury’s was closed.

“People talk about online shopping, but you have to spend a certain amount before they will deliver to you, so for many people here it’s too expensive.”

George Tapp, 74, who served as a Salford city councillor in the 1980s, also said the predicted extra 7,000 people living in the area would make Regent Road, one of the main arterial routes through Salford towards Manchester city centre ‘gridlocked’.

“It’s already gridlocked now, so it’ll be even worse,” he said.

Nic Leonard, 47, said:

“Too many apartments are being thrown up, eating into our estate.

“We are caught in a pincer movement between Manchester and Salford Quays and we are being priced out of the area. 

“The people who come to live here will be from elsewhere, places like London. Generations of people are living together now, unable to get properties and people from Ordsall will not be able to afford them. They talk about affordable homes but they be asking more than £200,000 for them and rents of more than £1,000 a month.”

Walter Greenhalgh, who is in his 80s, described the plans as ‘a travesty’. “To me, they’ve not thought about it,” he said.

“They’ve bought valuable land and they want to build six tower blocks without parking. But there’s no infrastructure.” However, Henley dispute this, saying there will be 600 car parking spaces.

Father-of-two Julian Morillo, 34, agreed: “I’m absolutely against them pulling those shops down. 

“I thought we had a Labour council, which is supposed to be for the working man. If they get rid of those shops there will be more than 1,000 people put out of work.”

Both men also said the bus service in Orsdal was ‘very poor’.

Adel Dondova, 33, was visiting Ordsall after moving away recently.

She said:

“The plan is really annoying. I don’t think they should do this. There are going to be a lot of people moving into the area and I don’t think there is enough here to sustain a much larger community.”

Two other women enjoying a coffee at Costa who did not wish to be named also spoke against the plan.

One said:

“On many levels, it’s not OK. It’s like people are being told to shop online. But that means less human-to-human interaction.

“I read somewhere that a man was trying to get his 80-year-old dad to shop online, but the father told him that traditional shopping was the only contact with anyone he had.

“I also imagine the prices of these apartments will be extortionate, and people round here won’t be able to afford them. It’s gentrification of an area, which I don’t agree with.”

Her friend said:

“I agree completely. There are very few alternatives for people living here to shop. I think this is a very bad idea.”

Coun Ben Grogan and Coun Tanya Burch, both Labour, represent the Ordsall ward. 

Coun Burch told the LDRS:

“We are aware that the residents are very concerned about this plan to remove the shops. The problem is that many of these residents don’t own a car and have nowhere else to shop.”

Coun Grogan said:

“My two main concerns about the development are about the loss of jobs and about the loss of retail which a lot of the community relies on including the chemist, the vets, and affordable shops.

“The retail park is listed as a Local Centre in Salford’s Local Plan because of this, and people think that it’s very unlikely that the retail provision that the developers are proposing will cater for the needs of Ordsall’s existing community. “

Independent Coun Chris Twells said: 

“I take the view that investment in the city is generally a good thing – look at the amazing transformation of Salford Quays in the last few decades.

“I don’t want to see this development go ahead but it is important to remember that these plans only propose the demolition of eleven retail units at the northern portion of the site. Sainsbury’s and other facilities would be retained.” 

As reported by the LDRS, Henley’s long-term plan is to deliver half the project by 2026 and half in 2028.

Responding, the company’s development manager Hattie Chairlier-Poole  said: 

“The project team were pleased to see the level of attendance at the event on Friday October 6 by members of the Ordsall community and welcomed the varied feedback from residents. It is important that we hear these comments now, so that we can take them on board to help inform our plans for the future neighbourhood.

“We recognise there are concerns about the loss of retail, but as the site is a designated Neighbourhood Centre, we can assure all members of the community that shops, services, and amenities will be re-provided.

“The current plans show the re-provision of 8,500 sq meters of retail space, over 15 units of differing sizes, and we are working closely with existing tenants, Salford city council officers, and a specialist consultant Distrkt, to develop a strategy for the retail provision that means it is curated to meet the needs of the existing community of Ordsall as well as any future residents.

“The plans for Regent Park also would see an approximate £25million investment into the delivery of a 3.5-acre park at the heart of the site, as well as significant public realm improvements with new walkways, planting, seating areas, play space for kids and cycle routes.

“We appreciate the comments that have been provided and will take into consideration the needs for shops and services, working with the Council, to create a new community that Salford can be proud of.”