Plants alone won’t solve a problem like Piccadilly Gardens

For those unfamiliar with Piccadilly Gardens, it’s the biggest, busiest, and arguably most important public square in Manchester city centre.

For too many years, however, it hasn’t provided the welcome that might be expected of England’s second city.

Blighted by crime and anti-social behaviour, it can feel intimidating to people who can’t really avoid using its busy bus and tram interchange. The gardens are also on the main walking route for most people arriving in the city centre via Piccadilly railway station.

Successive plans for improvement have failed to get to grips with Piccadilly Gardens, but there’s hope that will now change.

Earlier this month, Manchester City Council unveiled a ‘bright new chapter for Piccadilly Gardens,’ including ‘indicative’ images of a fresh look and feel by landscape architects LDA Design.

They show a more vibrant space which will be colourful across the seasons, with more flowers and a larger grassed area. Not quite the idyllic gardens painted by local artist L.S. Lowry back in 1954 - his painting still hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery in nearby Mosley Street - but something at least approaching a contemporary version of that.

The council says it will lead on a wide-ranging package of improvements to make the gardens more colourful, vibrant, and inviting. There will be an increased Greater Manchester Police presence, along with a multi-agency ‘base’ in Piccadilly Gardens to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Measures range from improving safety, enhancing CCTV and security, to decluttering and revamping the public realm. A new multi-million-pound transport interchange is planned.

While any move to improve Piccadilly Gardens is welcome, it’s clear that plants alone won’t solve a problem like Piccadilly Gardens when the root of its problems run much deeper in society.

Much of what Manchester must contend with is a result of difficult and deep-rooted social issues across the city-region, including poor mental health, drug use, and homelessness.

It’s not so much that Piccadilly Gardens is a place with problems, it’s that Piccadilly Gardens has come to represent some of this growing city’s deeply ingrained social issues – a melting pot swirling with issues requiring much deeper solutions.

The city council hints that local people will have a say in what happens during the subsequent redevelopment phases of Piccadilly Gardens, but it remains to be seen exactly how far people will be able to influence its plans.

To be effective, any engagement on the answer to these problems must be far-reaching and meaningful, considering not only plants and policing within Piccadilly Gardens, but also hearing from people qualified to fix social issues way beyond garden design.