If you walk around Platt Fields today you might well wonder what the plan is. You might see volunteers doing some gardening, some people cutting the grass, or putting up fences. Everyone looks like they know what they’re doing, but beyond that there is actually little to no agreement about what we are all working towards.
In 2017 Manchester Council released the ten year parks strategy. There were four themes: parks at the heart of neighbourhoods, healthy people, a quality standard for all parks, and working closer with partners. They sound like good objectives to me.
At the heart of the strategy was the promise to create management plans for individual parks. These would include considerations about the needs of the local neighbourhood and plans for financing and resources. So much of the strategy links back to these park plans since they point the direction we jointly want to work in. In theory they are representative of the people who live there.
Fast forward seven years and Platt Fields is still waiting for its park plan. The problem is that since the austerity years of 2017 things have only got worse. Covid intervened in the middle and money has been increasingly short. The council parks department has been asked to find £420,000 of savings in face of budget cuts.
So we can be considerate of a delay. But now we’re back on track surely it should be a priority? After all we are one of three named Destination Parks (along with Heaton and Wythenshaw).
Without a plan things haven’t been working. Maintenance isn’t being done leading to bigger and more expensive problems. At the moment the worst of those is drainage, with some of the paths inaccesible after heavy rain, forcing cancellations of the Park Run and flooding the Shakespearean Garden. This has knock on effects for people trying to live active lifestyles, or even just walking to work.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that decisions are being made in back-rooms and not at the community level. Something not in the 2017 park strategy called the Commercial Plan has been written already. Apparently it includes the use of built structures to bring in money, and is looking at other ways the Parks can make money through commercial partnerships. Why is this seperate to the park plan?
Over to Heaton Park last November. The council asked for expressions of interest from the private sector to invest in a £5m family attraction on five acres of land in the heart of park. That also followed something called a “commercial masterplan”. Could something like this be coming to Platt Fields? Manchester Evening News ‘£5M family attraction’.
The latest word is that the job of writing the park plan is now being outsourced to a specialist consultant, as was the case for Fog Lane park. We saw nothing about a park plan for Platt Fields on the council’s tender website, and a freedom of information request was refused due to “commercial sensitivity”. Then we were told the tender process was being bypassed in order to speed it up. Our worry is that when you pay for something, you usually get what you ask for.
In the time since 2010 we have seen a handful of grassroots community projects start up. When some people see empty buildings and overgrown gardens they see potential rather than problems. Over the years unused spaces have been occupied by the community (with permission), and groups step in to maintain and provide what they think is needed in the area. We have seen this at the Market Garden, the Boathouse, Shakespearean Garden and as some would like, the Bowls Hut.
But some of these grass-roots groups are under threat. Negotiations have been going on for years between The Market Garden and Council officers over the terms of a lease for the site of the old bowling greens. Recently they have been told a lease would be impossible if it also included a concession to serve food and drink, as it would create competition with any potential cafe at the Lakeside Centre.
The Bike Hub similarly have been unable to secure a lease. Whoever wrote the commercial plan clearly can’t be thinking too highly of the existing social enterprises in the park. Remember we were told the park plan would include considerations about the needs of the local neighbourhood. Well here they are, doing it themselves.
Platt Fields needs a park plan and it needs it yesterday. Without agreeing some common aims the council have free reign to do what they want – which at the moment sounds like private sector “family attractions”, Costa coffee, and big events. Platt also needs more resources. Our superb park warden is responsible for Platt but also seventeen other parks. Seventeen.
I quite like the idea of letting the local community decide what happens in their area. In my opinion we should be building on the assets that already exist in Platt Fields rather than trying to bring in mega-bucks. A generous lottery grant would go a long long way in Platt. (Longford Park to be transformed.)
So when the park plan does come we need to hear everyone’s voices in the consultation, whether you agree with me or not. Do the survey, come to the meetings, and talk to the people who live and work there.