This website was created by the residence of Brankgate Court on Lapwing Lane in West Didsbury, Manchester to help address some of the concerns surrounding the Metrolink extension.
Phase 3a of the Metrolink expansion is working its way through West Didsbury with trams up and running as soon as 2011. This development is going to have a dramatic impact on the local area affecting it in many ways. We feel it is important to ensure that we are doing everything we can to work together to make this as successful as possible. By acting now we hope to give ourselves the best opportunity to raise issues directly relevant to Brankgate Court and voice these in the appropriate forums. The issues raised so far are.
The story so far
On 11th February 2010 South Manchester Reporter carried a half page article entitled ‘Ribbon appeal to save trees’
By Amy Glendinning.
It followed a press release sent to them at the beginning of the week along with pictures that the local group had collected. The group photo is us perched on the Brankgate compost heap. ( which is on the right in the first picture) The newspaper has two other photos to show the comparison between the jungle and the devastation of the Chorlton section.
The local group had formed from West Didsbury Residents Association, other locals and Brankgate Court resident. WDRA had declined to be named in the article because of prudent concern over Police involvement in the protection of wildlife.
In reviewing the report, I note that the Reporter article is mistaken in saying that the cutting has been left for 20 years, it’s actually 40 years.
It also fails to comment on the GMPTE points. They speak of having plans for replacement pond habitat on Hough End and Albermarle allotments. But the group point out that it will be months between the alternative provision and the loss of what has been.
There has been some ecologist involvement by the GMPT and contractors, to move organisms to a holding pond at Parrswood Rural studies centre, which we hope has been effective. The local ecology-minded folk have been lobbying particularly for habitat preservation now and in the future and others particularly for the preservation of the outlook from our buildings.
Outlook from the flats
So far the outlook from the flats is much the same, with the clearance along the track bed. Where the track approaches the Palatine Road bridge, the banks have been more thoroughly cleared but that affects us when in the triangle garden.
There it is a little bleak. Our birch and privet and the trees at the top of the bank are currently intact but there is the potential for further felling. Some vines have been planted against our fence in the hope of screening and the scrub is likely to re-grow.
The animal dwellings near us have not been so brutally disrupted as in the section by Hough End fields, where trees were felled in a jumble on top of the taped off areas.
The view east down the cutting on the morning of 13th February 2010, after a busy week of clearing. Brankgate property is virtually unaffected ( bank on the right), only debris.
Our “resident bat” will be unlikely to roost at Brankgate again since the feeding area in front of the bridge has gone. 13th Feb 2010
Whereas in September 2009 there was no view through the fencing. And the bridge was hidden.
The trees were beginning to obscure the water on the track bed and the bat feeding may have been curtailed over the years. The idea of habitat management is one that GMPTE may be able to take on board in their plans for the future of their embankments. But I believe that we shall need to lobby for this and involve the GM wildlife professionals