Levenshulme Peace Garden Proposal

Location:
Chapel Street/Gordon Avenue Levenshulme (site of former community centre)

1 Why develop this space?

(a) Wider regeneration impact

- The immediate area is densely populated, and mostly terraced housing, with many houses in a poor state of repair and most houses lacking gardens. The Peace Garden will be located within one of the 5% most deprived areas in England (Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2004: Super Output Area, Manchester, 031D). The two highest rank scores for the area - indicating the poorest outcomes - relate to health and the living environment. These will both be addressed by the Peace Garden proposal.

- Chapel Street and Gordon Avenue are both very poor quality public spaces. Chapel Street was once a central Levenshulme thoroughfare. It is now unfriendly to pedestrians and has lost any sense of identity, with Chapel Street School surrounded by semi-dereliction. Gordon Avenue has a similar feel of abandonment, and is an unloved rat run. The Peace Garden will be a first step to restore a positive sense of place, and it will be a beacon for further improvement of the two axes of Chapel Street and Gordon Avenue.

- We want to promote ‘green veins’ running through this part of Levenshulme, with the Peace Garden at the centre of the network. We envisage three veins: west (to the Village Green, crossing the A6, to the station), east (to Chapel Street Park, via Elmsworth Avenue and Broom Lane to the gateway path to Highfield Country Park), and south (along Gordon Avenue to the entrance to the Fallowfield Loop at Crayfield Road). The Peace Garden is part of a broader conception for the greening of Levenshulme.

- Plans for re-development of land adjacent to the site - from Stockport Road (St. Mary’s site) towards Stanhope Street & Chapel St - are necessary and overdue. This commercial and residential property development needs to be accompanied by restoration of community facilities. But we cannot afford to wait until other development happens. Work needs to start now. The Peace Garden can help to achieve a balanced development and to provide direct benefits for existing residents.

- The Peace Garden re-claims the space for a community facility after the loss of the community centre. The land is of great symbolic importance. This development of the site, resulting from a community-based campaign, will build self-confidence of local people in their capacity to achieve visible improvement through voluntary action. This is a well-supported and positive proposal to develop the site as a community asset.

- The Peace Garden will bring a mix of local people, of all ages, into the public space. Re-populating the streets in the immediate area of the junction of Chapel Street and Gordon Avenue will promote a sense of greater confidence and safety for residents and pedestrians. (b) A peaceful space - There are good quality green spaces elsewhere in Levenshulme, including Highfield Country Park & Cringle Park, but these are not accessible to all. Older people and parents with young children living in the immediate neighbourhood of the Peace Garden will benefit from this accessible and peaceful green space.

- The Peace Garden will promote cross-cultural cohesion as an attractive and peaceful meeting place for a diverse immediate neighbourhood. There is an absence of other community meeting spaces in the immediate area, which has a particularly ethnically mixed population (e.g. at the neighbouring Chapel Street School pupils speak twenty-eight different first languages). The Peace Garden will be a community-wide meeting place.

- We will draw on local people and resources to contribute elements to the Peace Garden, working with members of the Madina Mosque in Barlow Road to develop an Islamic theme in the garden design and collaborating with Chapel Street School to engage children in project work consistent with the garden’s theme of peace. Designing the Peace Garden will actively engage local people and promote community integration.

- The Peace Garden is primarily intended for adults and accompanied children. With the support of local residents, and in the design, we will promote the Peace Garden as a quiet space for reflection and calm in an otherwise busy urban environment. (c) Commitment to voluntary action

- A Friends of Levenshulme activity day on the site on Bank Holiday Monday 7th May 2007 attracted significant support and publicity, and included donations and planting of more than 120 plants on the site. There is strong local awareness of the site and interest in creating a new green space.

- The success of the Peace Garden as a community-based project will depend on the willingness of local people both to contribute to initial development plans for the site, and to provide volunteer contributions for its maintenance over the longer-term. Local residents’ associations support the proposal, including the two associations directly adjoining the site, the Cromwell Grove & Chapel Street RA and the Delamere Neighbourhood Group. We have secured active support, enthusiasm and momentum to create and maintain the Peace Garden.

- A meeting held about the Peace Garden proposal held in the Madina Mosque on Sunday 10th June 2007 attracted 40 people, including local councillors and members of the Mosque. There was support and enthusiasm for the proposal. A working group was established to develop the Peace Garden proposal, including representatives of the Delamere Neighbourhood Group, Cromwell Grove and Chapel St. Residents Association and the secretary of the Madina Mosque.

– The transfer of the land at Chapel Street/Gordon Avenue, as an asset to be managed for the benefit of the community, is entirely consistent with current central government priorities for urban regeneration. This land should be a priority for release for community use, based on the evidence of the local commitment to volunteer action to develop the site. 2. Costs and funding (a) Loss of capital receipt to the City Council

The site should be a priority for transfer to community use. We acknowledge that there is a potential loss of the capital receipt to the City Council, but other sites are available for disposal by the local authority. This site has been in community use for decades.


(b) High impact for little City Council investment

- The Peace Garden has the potential for wider regeneration of the immediate neighbourhood, will actively engage with diverse local ethnic communities, and will bring significant environmental improvement. We have a strong case to be able to secure independent funding for the project.

- We have identified a number of directly relevant skills from amongst our existing volunteer supporters, including landscape design, environmental project management, and community participation. We have made direct links with voluntary sector organisations willing to support development work on the proposal, including the Black Environment Network and the Scarman Trust. The project will enable us to bring in these additional resources to the benefit of the Levenshulme community.

- Project funding will meet both the capital costs for development of the site and revenue costs for maintenance for the first three years of operation, supplemented by volunteer labour and skills. Any request for City Council support to fund continuation of the Peace Garden after three years would be based on the existing proven positive impact of the Peace Garden.



As you will see this is a very positive project for Levenshulme and we look forward to your support.