'We need a huge amount more' - Manchester's growing problem and the people trying to fix it

The office workers from the buildings nearby could have somewhere to eat lunch in the sun; parents could bring their kids to blow off steam during a busy shopping trip; and people cycling into the city centre could rest for a moment before parking their bikes safely. Not to mention the reduction in car emissions.

This is the vision put forward by gardening co-operative Plant MCR and the Europe-wide organisation Clean Cities. On Friday, they set up a pop-up urban garden in the car park for an event called Manchester Unpaved, inviting members of the public to find out more about how green spaces could benefit the city. The pop-up included a bike repair workshop, bulb planting, ear-wig hotel making and even a heritage tour.

Manchester’s lack of green space is a growing issue, spurred on by the rapid development the city centre has seen over recent years. For Andy at Plant MCR, who works on community gardening projects across the city, the message is clear: “We need more green spaces in the city.

“Even within those areas where there are big developments and there's a commitment to a certain amount of green space, they're usually for the residents of those buildings. They're not public spaces. There definitely needs to be a huge amount more.”

He says that public support for Plant MCR’s mission to bring more nature into the city is overwhelming: “We've never had any one stop and say: I don't want more green. Everyone wants more nature and more green – and not just more landscaping.

“It might look nice, but it doesn't engage you in any way. We want something to look beautiful, but it also has that element of breaking through that barrier and actually getting stuck in, getting your hands dirty, feeling like you have a bit of agency over the space, what grows there.”

But there’s also a strong environmental argument for converting spaces like the Chinatown car park into public green space, as Clean Cities have set out to prove. According to their research, Manchester city centre prioritises space for cars over green space by a ratio of 7:1. In the city centre, roads take up 28% of the space, car parks take up 8% and green space – less than 5%.

Sarah Rowe, the Greater Manchester lead for Clean Cities, said: “If you count road space plus car parking space, that's over a third of space in the city centre, while green space is less than 5%. It's one of those things that once you notice it, you can't un-notice it.”

She added: “The evidence from other places is that if you make somewhere nice to spend time, people are more likely to spend money. I think there's always a fear that converting car parks is bad for business, but evidence shows that does not need to be the case. There's also evidence that more green spaces, more places to stay, sit and rest would help people travel more actively, so more walking.”

Clean Cities have put together a list of policy recommendations for the council that look at various issues, such as kerbside parking, parking tariffs and reallocating parking space for green space. While the council has been active in its support for more green space, it needs to move faster on its promises.

Sarah said: “Manchester has ambitious goals on climate that, at the moment, it's not reaching. And there's a lack of space that we need to make those goals happen. So it's looking at rebalancing space away from cars and towards those things that would help people travel more sustainably.”

Similarly, Andy said: “There's nothing that we're asking for that the council haven't already committed to already, we're just asking them to do it a lot faster. The conversation is already happening, we're just trying to push that along a little bit, trying to get some support for that and have the conversations with people: what do they want to see? How would they want to see the space be used?”

And it’s clear that people in Manchester do have ideas on how spaces like this could be used. Dympna Gould, a Blue Badge tour guide who has worked on other green space projects, such as the Castlefield Viaduct, was at the Manchester Unpaved event to lead a heritage tour around Chinatown. As someone who works here regularly and has a deep understanding of the area’s history, she sees great potential in a new city centre green space.

She said: “If there was a garden, how many more stories could you tell? How much more interesting – for anyone, whether you've come over from Hong Kong or if you're from Collyhurst – would it be to come and sit here and learn about historic botanists, sat under a tree? How marvellous would that be?”

• Plant MCR welcome volunteers. More information and how to get involved can be found on their website.
• More information about the work Clean Cities are doing in Manchester and across Europe can be found on their website, where you will also find template letters to send to you local councillors and MPs if you want to see more green space and lower emissions in your area.