IT'S GETTING PARKY

CITY LEADER UNVEILS VISION OF CITY CENTRE ENCIRCLED BY GREEN SPACES

- ETHAN DAVIES

A SERIES of green spaces could encircle Manchester city centre, it has been suggested by the city's top boss.

Bev Craig, Manchester council leader, said there is an opportunity' to 'knit together' a series of green spaces in the Ancoats, New Islington and Piccadilly areas of the city centre.

She was speaking at a meeting of the council's executive meeting this week, where the authority announced plans to build a 'digital campus' on the former Central Retail Park.

The retail park closed in 2019 and has been the centre of fierce debate over its future, with campaigners calling for the 10-and-a-half acre site to become parkland.

However, council bosses have instead decided to build the 'digital campus, which government departments could move into. That's prompted opposition councillors in the area to call for more parks to be created instead.