It's been a while! The team behind the scenes have been busy with their lives. Julia and Gemma both had children in 2020, our hands our full with full time jobs, toddlers and Julia has two other children as well.
Claire has a new project and full time job that's taking all her time now. Claire put lots of effort into keeping Trees Not Cars updated and energised over the years. Huge thanks. We still want to keep on pushing for more green space in Manchester city centre, especially on the Central Retail Park and around Ancoats where so many families now live. We know planning permission has been granted for half the site to go to government buildings, that leave 5 acres which still has no designated purpose.
We are still proud of the action we took to successfully stop the former Central Retail Park being opened as a temporary car park. We are also very pleased with the addition of the 6.5 acre park at Mayfield, complete with a play area! The more green space in Manchester, the better! We want to work with the council to discover what's getting in the way of developing significant green space on this land in Ancoats, especially after the loss of 3 acres on nearby New Islington Green. We would like to be included in any plans and to keep local people up to date. The way we plan to do this is by working closely with local councillors, and helping our supporters know more about the candidates standing, in order to make their own choices of who to vote for. We believe that representation of local views in the council is the best way to make change. We are not aligned to any political party, just whoever is in support of our campaign!