Ed Miliband Endorses BDP’s Green Campaign

Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband visited BDP’s Manchester studio on 14 September to give his backing to the Garden City campaign.

BDP environmental design associate Steve Merridew took Ed to target sites around the city identified by the campaign, and presented on the work done so far. Ed endorsed the campaign as a model for increasing and improving the provision of public green space in our city centres saying: “The city of the 21st century has to take more account of climate change. I think there is a long way to go to make these environmental issues central to the way we think about cities and town planning.”

The Garden City Campaign was initiated by BDP as an independent initiative to provide a vehicle for projects which improve the green infrastructure and public realm of Manchester city centre. The campaign’s interest range from small scale individual projects, such as beautifying patches of neglected canal side, through to creating an aspirational vision for the future of Manchester as a genuine garden city.

Current projects include;

• The enhancement of BDP’s Manchester studio green roof, which was completed in April and is now being monitored by its Ecology department to understand how Flora and Fauna are colonising the space.
• Ecological and landscape enhancements to the canal side temporary car park adjacent to the stalled Piccadilly Basin site, for which funding has been secured.
• A submission to the Property Week/Urban Splash competition to find a temporary use for a stalled building site in the New Islington development.

On 28 October the Garden City Campaign will be presenting the next stage of its vision to key developers and businesses in Manchester. BDP hopes to use the opportunity to identify key partners to provide support, sites and funding to move the campaign forward.

For further information and updates please refer to the website: www.manchestergardencity.org.uk

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Picture 1 in front of the BDP's Manchester Studio, Ducie Street L-R: Steve Merridew - BDP environmental design associate, Ed Miliband MP, Kev Peel - Labour candidate for Manchester.