New Hulme Gamecock pub student block will destroy our community and we feel constantly under attack

Block the Block campaigners and Hulme locals met outside the Manchester Civil Justice Courts on Monday (March 24), ahead of a judicial review against Manchester City Council’s planning department.

Last year, a planning committee approved an application by Curlew Alternatives Eighth Property LP to build a nine-storey student accommodation block on the site of the former Gamecock Pub on Booth Street.

But campaigners have mounted a legal challenge against the decision, claiming council officers ‘misled’ the committee members who made the choice to grant permission.

The review centres on one particular development, which residents argue would block the sunlight from two neighbouring social housing blocks ‘and make it feel like you’re living in Iceland’ and overburden already stretched local amenities. But protestors made it clear they saw a ‘wider issue’ in the neighbourhood.

Amidst shouts of ‘Housing for the needy, not the greedy!’, Hulme residents voiced their fears that social rent tenants were being ‘pushed out’ of Hulme to make way for private developments.

Tina Cribbin, a long-term resident of Hulme, said: “It’s the principle of them completely overdeveloping the area to the point of the exclusion of the community. It’s [felt like] a long-standing process of slow violence against the community.

“I think what they’re trying to do is make the community move away from Hulme. You feel like everything is temporary and you’re not secure in your own housing. We feel like we’re constantly under attack.”

And Sally, who has considered Hulme her home for more than 60 years since emigrating from Ireland, added: “Where’s our Manchester? They’ve sold us out. And we’ve gained nothing from it. I’m appalled that it’s come to this. This is the council we’ve supported for all these years, and they’ve sold us down the river without a paddle.”

The group has campaigned against the student housing block for almost five years. The application went through several iterations, including losing three storeys, in response to concerns raised by local councillors.

But the plans were approved in June last year, only a few weeks after councillors had stated they were ‘minded to refuse’ the application. Now a legal team is arguing that the committee changed their mind as a result of a ‘misleading’ report provided by council officers.

Saskia O’Hara, from the Public Interest Law Centre said: “We are arguing today that the planning officers misled the committee members who ultimately made the decision as to their powers to lawfully refuse the application and on what basis. Our position is that they absolutely did and that the planning permission should be quashed – quashed meaning it’s ripped up as though it never happened.”

A Manchester City Council spokesperson said: “Every application received by the Council is judged on its own merits and assessed against both national and local planning frameworks, along with site specific considerations.

“The Council is engaging fully with the judicial review but it would be inappropriate to comment further as the legal process is ongoing.”

In 2022, Manchester City Council set out a plan to deliver 10,000 affordable homes across the city, including 3,000 in city-centre locations such as Hulme.