CyanLines: Manchester’s £100m ambition to reconnect with nature

There’s a well-worn phrase in Greater Manchester which has been attributed to one of the city-region’s most famous sons, Tony Wilson, in spite of the fact that he almost certainly never said it.

“This is Manchester… we do things differently here,” is that phrase, and you’ll see it in some form or another across town (Mancunian for the city centre). It’s even in the official motto of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which takes pride in “Doing things differently”.

Even if it wasn’t a verbatim quote from the late and great Wilson, founder of Factory Records, and the man posthumously credited with having presided over the cultural renaissance which drove Manchester’s impressive recent growth, it is an excellent summary of the way the city does business.

Seemingly plucked out of the air are incredible ambitions without any chance of being realised, existential challenges to be overcome. Yet incredible stuff happens time after time because someone thinks it might be a ‘cool’ idea or is determined to make something good out of something bad.

The difference I think is a “place first” pride which unites and empowers. There was a potent reminder of this key characteristic at the launch last week of CyanLines.

More than six hundred people packed into Factory International, aka Aviva Studios,  itself an example of things that once felt like an impossible dream. 

Tom Bloxham, Chair of Urban Splash Group, one of Greater Manchester’s most famous developers, said he had long harboured an idea to rescue Manchester’s canals, rivers, and walkways from generations of decline that begun when the city was first being powered up for the Industrial Revolution.

Planner Pete Swift, founding director of Planit, had come to a similar conclusion and together they have somehow managed to convene the great and the good to go along with the idea.

The call now is for £100m of investment over 10 years in efforts to clean up and connect blue and green spaces in Manchester, Salford and beyond, depolluting, detangling, and removing barriers to walking and cycling.

The River Irwell, unloved and unlovely, will become elevated from its status as the all-but-forgotten border between Salford and Manchester. Big names in the private and public sector have already signed up.

By reintroducing nature, connecting pocket parks and green spaces via towpaths and footpaths, the hope is that the regional centre can become more attractive for the many people who live here already, and those still to come. It’s a bold move which is very likely to succeed.

You can find out more about CyanLines and how to get involved here: CyanLines – Where green and blue meet to grow the city…