AS THE digger rolled through the gates, a chant went up among the crowd.
"Shame on you, MMU," more than 30 Chorlton residents yelled in unison.
They then fell silent and could only watch in horror as the machinery whirred through the dense tangle of brambles and vegetation beyond a mesh fence they've been trying to more than 25 years.
The group gathered outside the Ryebank Fields yesterday morning to protest against a controversial development plan for the 'beloved' and 'naturally rewilded' green space on the border of South Manchester.
Though the land is owned by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), locals have long laid claim to the space as it was left to grow wild since the 1990s.
Yesterday morning MMU contractors arrived on the site with fencing, diggers and a Save Ryeba police presence. They wanted to move forward with plans to build 120 homes with the help of developers Step Places and Southway Housing.
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