AUGUST 2019 BusIness 45
“There are challenges, I agree. We need
spaces that can be shared, but once you
have got a certain amount of shared
spaces in the city, which we now have,
we then have to look at putting more
greenery in them. There is a danger, and
we’ve wrestled with it in some of our
schemes, of trying to create a shared
space you end up with hard spaces with
flat paving. The trees have to be around
the outside, because you have got to
make sure you’ve got the space for the
Christmas Markets and that’s great for a
few weeks of the year but you want trees
and plants for the rest.
“There is a balance between flexible
space and old-fashioned gardens in the
city centre.”
Miley followed on from that, agreeing
activation needed to take place 12
months of the year. He said: “Taking the
example of MIF, at Albert Square, it’s
been in incredible festival mode and
incredibly animated attracting hundreds
of people daily.
“And the key to making public realm
successful and secure is how you
activate it when it’s not in festival mode
or Christmas Market time.”
Thame suggested that all people
sometimes want is a “bit of green turf ”.
Copley pointed out that green
surfaces work in cities such as London
and Paris because they have fenced-off
areas where people can go, whereas
Piccadilly Gardens, for example, is a
thoroughfare and “everything space”.
“It’s so multi-functional, it’s incredibly
intensively used, but, as other green
spaces are created, that intensity will
then move onto other areas of the city,”
she said. “I remember working in
planning in the early 1990s when there
was a directive following a number of
sexual attacks that all bushes and shrubs
were removed from the whole of
Manchester.
“That was a radical approach. But I
think, more than 20 years later, that’s left
a less green environment.”
Looking at maintenance costs,
Thompson said there was an
opportunity for local people to get
involved and help out.She said: “We have a model called
‘Citizens Forest’ which is a way to get
people practically involved in the Cities
of Trees movement, from looking after
your local woodland to doing up a grot
spot and planting trees, but that also
extends to neighbourhood street-based
greenery. I agree there is enough public
power out there, especially among
young people who are interested in their
environment in a way that I’ve not seen
before. Maintenance can be done
through various ways and means, with
people taking an active part in that and
feeling that they are part of a bigger
movement.”
Copley said: “In terms of people
staying in the city for the rest of their
lives, providing the ability to be involved
in greenery has a lot of merits.”
“It’s about a collective effort here, not
about individuals being told just to stick
a token green space on their scheme,”
added Lister.
Thame asked if providing more
greenery was a matter of public policy?
Copley pointed to the Greater
Manchester Spacial Framework.
“The Framework attempts to have
some balance, making developer
contributions on greenfield more
expensive to enable the viability of
brownfield sites to work,” she said.
Higgins said the decision to put a
garden in Kampus, a joint venture
between Capital & Centric and Henry
Boot Development, was a choice they
made from the beginning. “Thinking
about Manchester being a former
industrial city and famously having
fewer trees compared to other cities, it
was all about greenery in the beginning
and getting that square in there,” he
said. “We brought in Exterior Architects
as our landscape architects, and the
brief right from the beginning was trees
and plants.”
Miley said: “The interesting thing
about Kampus is that we are not putting
a lawn or grass in for people to sit on,
we’re putting a garden in with pockets
for people to sit so they feel like they are
surrounded by green. It’s very dense
and we’ve taken a lot of time looking at
different tree species and making sure
they were absolutely right for the
climatic conditions in the city and for
that space.”
He added: “We have climate change
happening. It will get warmer and we
will have more extreme weather, so it’s
our responsibility to make sure that
what we are specifying is still going to be
climatically appropriate in 50 years’
time, based on what we know now.”
Thompson said key stakeholders such
as the city council, United Utilities, and
TFGM, need to come together for a
more “holistic approach”.
“Every time a pavement gets opened
for something to happen or the road is
rejigged, that’s the time to say where can
we put the trees in.”
Asked who will pay for it?, Higginssaid the public sector needed to do
“step-up” as most developers see green
spaces and public realm as adding value
to their schemes.
“Developers are getting that there is a
social responsibility to do a better
quality scheme and provide better
quality public space.
“Where it’s within our control,
developers are generally getting this
now and seeing that there is a cost to it,
but you do get the value back.
“It’s not all down to the private sector
and property developers to create a
lovely green city, the public sector is
ultimately responsible as well, and if that
means they have to charge more council
tax or business rates, then why not? It’s
about creating a better city centre. There
are lots of businesses moving to the city
centre and we all benefit from it.”
Lister agreed: “It is essential for the
future growth that cities invest massively
in this. People are making more
informed choices about wanting to live
in a more liveable city. European cities
are phenomenal at this, such as
Copenhagen, which create these well-
connected green environments that
people want to live in.
“The contribution should come from a
number of sources. The NHS, for
example, spends huge amounts of
money treating depression with pills,
but why not look at social prescriptions
such as a walk in the park - that will save
billions of pounds in NHS spend.”
All participants agreed making
Manchester more walkable will bring
huge benefits for the city.
Looking at how other cities are doing it,
Birmingham was given as an example.
The city joins the likes of San
Francisco, Wellington and Oslo in a
global network of “biophilic cities” –
urban centres celebrated for their green
credentials, their open spaces and their
links to nature.
Singapore was also shown as an
example, as it aims to be the greenest
city in the world.
The push to go green extends to
construction as well – green building
has been mandatory since 2008.
Thompson said: “If all developments
have to have some green infrastructure,
we can make it happen. The time is right
for it.”
Lister looked at a future with no cars
in the city. He said: “We’re going to see
fewer cars in the city, as people are
looking at greener ways to travel.
“If we didn’t have cars in the city,
imagine what we could do with
Deansgate: it could be highly used and it
creates an opportunity to intensify
greenery, create more social spaces. We
could have a Las Ramblas-type
boulevard.”
But, is this viable?
Copley added: “Policy is getting there,
such as the Spatial Framework, but we
need more linkages and getting the
realities and instruments in place.”The ‘green city’
roundtable at Sedulo