Oldfield Basin

A tiny baby step towards restoration?

Salford Council are asking for comments on a planning application regarding the site presently occupied by the Regent Trading Estate.  The site is immediately adjacent to the Islington Mill Arts Hub. The application, by the council’s development partner ECF, is for the construction of a “Passivhaus certified” low carbon specification residential development (Class C3) comprising 90 dwellings (all for affordable rent) across an apartment block and townhouses with associated access, parking and public realm.  

One of the Regent Trading Estate warehouses was constructed over the top of the canal about 50 years ago, before it was council policy not to allow development that would hinder restoration.  In the plans submitted by ECF this warehouse will be demolished and the land “retained as a communal garden space”  and “In designating this as a garden, allowance has been made for potential future restoration of the canal”.

The developer has commissioned an archaeological survey which will help determine how much of the canal infrastructure remains intact.

MBBCS have responded to the planning application and asked to be kept informed of progress on the archaeological survey and requested that the applicant should consider whether exposing the coping stones could form part of their landscaping scheme.  This could be considered an interim stage before full restoration commences, should finances allow at some future date, and the basin itself is excavated. 

MBBCS proposes that ECF convene a meeting between MBBCS, Salford City Council and the Canal and River Trust to explore the potential for restoration of the canal basin in the future, should funding become available.  We hope this meeting would surface any engineering issues that need to be accounted for in planning and costing the work needed to proceed with restoration, albeit that the timetable for this remains unknown.  We believe this will better inform any decisions that are to be made about the interim use of the canal basin footprint.  A little planning now could avoid major headaches in the future.