Wythenshawe locals have not spared criticism for the town’s long-suffering Civic Centre, into which Manchester Council is set to inject a £500 million investment
A shopping centre left to rot despite promises of an imminent upgrade for years has been blasted as “absolute c**p” by fed-up local residents.
Wythenshawe’s Civic Centre, a once bustling central shopping hub, has stagnated in recent years, with most shops in the area touted by Manchester Council as the “beating heart” of Wythenshawe town centre reduced to nothing more than shuttered fronts. Locals once dubbed the area a “sh** hole”, and the centre’s continued decline has only seen their fury grow in recent years.
Residents have dubbed the facility “absolutely c**p” as, despite bold plans from the council for a £500 million regeneration, it remains all but closed down.
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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News from the site, multiple people told of the marked decline the Civic Centre has undergone since it was part of Europe’s bustling largest council estate.
Longtime local resident Elizabeth Byford, who knew the area in better times, said there was “nothing to see” in the facility, while Jane Thorley said she often saw local homeless “fighting” outside an Asda, one of the centre’s few remaining open shops, saying: “Nobody likes coming here. It’s very quiet, there are so many homeless people begging.
“They fight outside Asda for which spot is theirs. There’s just no life here.” Alan Rourke, 67, blasted the centre as “absolutely c**p”, adding it has become “utterly flat”.
He said: “It’s absolutely c**p. It used to be so much better, with decent shops, and a good market, but now there is nothing to attract anyone here. It’s like a ghost town.”
“Unless you lived here, nobody would bother coming. It would be a waste of time. The only decent shops are B&M and Asda, there’s nothing else. Everything else is shut. It’s utterly flat. We come down here for a few hours and could easily not come again for a week, it gets us that fed up.
“The rents are so high that the businesses can’t afford it and then they aren’t replaced. It’s a circle that keeps going round.” Manchester Council has spent £500 million to invest in the Civic Centre, which it plans to spend over the next 10 to 15 years.
The council has partnered with Muse, a firm it says will help revitalise the centre by bringing together “a range of organisations and professionals together to create a town centre that Wythenshawe people deserve”. In a statement, a spokesperson for the council said te revilatisation project would create up to 2,000 new homes and “spaces to bring the community together.
They said: “The ambitious vision for Wythenshawe Town Centre will see £500m invested over the next 10-15 years, creating up to 2,000 homes for local people and spaces to bring the community together.”
“Over the last few months, we’ve been out in the local community talking to people about what they want to see in the town and have set up our dedicated regeneration meeting point ‘Open Space’ in Civic. The feedback we’ve had is helping to shape the plans but the conversation doesn’t stop there.
“We’ve just announced a packed programme of events during August and September, where people can come and chat, find out more about what’s happening and have their say.
“Things are starting to move at pace now. The plans for the Culture Hub were approved in June with work starting on this and the wider reboot of Civic later this year. We recently announced a collaboration agreement with Wythenshawe Community Housing Group to deliver the first phases of new homes and will be consulting on this in the coming weeks with planning applications due to be submitted before the end of the year.”